The Tale of the Lost
by PandaShadow
Summary: Meera, age seventeen, led a difficult life. She had everything she knew ripped away from her only to be mistreated by someone she thought she could trust. Her draining ability to heal was abused and, when she couldn't take it anymore, she was left with a scar and a brutal promise. Her life spins in a whole new direction when she meets Sora, Kairi, and Riku. RikuOC and SoraKairi
1. Prologue

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Prologue**

**A/N: Well then. Hello there. For those of you just stumbling upon this story, you should know that it has been in the works for about six years and, one day, I plan on finishing it. I really do. Even though I keep getting distracted, namely by my original novels that I am writing. Am I biting off more than I can chew? Yes, yes I am.**

**I've gone through and revised the four chapters of this story that were already present, and I present them to you now. As this is my favorite of all the fan fiction I have ever written, I would like to inform you that it shall be updated with priority to the others I am in the process of attempting to finish.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own only my plot and the original characters, such as Meera, that I have created. I make no profit from writing this story.**

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A seventeen-year-old, red-haired girl stepped out onto the dark gray balcony outside of her room in Radiant Garden. Her feet were bare on the icy stone, her long black night gown flowing in the slight breeze. She was contemplating a tough decision, though not one that she had never contemplated before.

She gazed down into a small lake in the back area of the castle in Radiant Garden. It shimmered with the reflections from the many, bright stars in the sky. On a normal night, anyone would say that the lake looked majestic, like angels had blessed it. To the girl on her balcony, it looked like a welcoming hole, extending its arms for her to jump inside and be freed of her pain and guilt forever.

The lake itself wasn't large, but it was deep enough for someone to drown in if they didn't care to swim to shore.

She abruptly spun away from the railing of the balcony, taking a cold step back toward the glass door leading into her room. She lifted her pale left hand to her right shoulder, wincing at the memory of the scar that rested there, and the promise that went along with it. She began pacing, trying to decide if she was really doing the right thing. She stopped and placed a hand on her glass door and looked down at the soft, red carpet, remembering how it had felt under her feet only a few minutes ago.

Was she ready to give up that feeling forever?

She could feel her eyes watering as she reminded herself why she had made this decision in the first place. Silent tears rolled down her face as she turned around and placed her hands back onto the dull, stone railing. She had to do it, or people around her would just keep getting hurt. The red-head looked up at the stars and her rolling tears became a downpour, but she remained silent.

"_Shamira! NO!" the girl yelled as she saw her only friend fall to the ground, a large gash running across her torso. Tears began to pour out of her gray eyes as she felt her body become numb and fall to the ground. Her fists clutched bits of grass as she sobbed endlessly, even after hearing a chillingly familiar chuckle._

"_Have you realized now that I never lie? All that will ever happen to anyone near you is death. They'll try to protect you from me, and they will die. And it will be your entire fault," he punctuated each word in the sentence. "Every single time, it will be your fault. And once I kill everyone with the slightest chance of getting close to you, you will die a slow and painful death by my hand. You remember my promise now, don't you girl?"_

_She only sobbed harder and clutched her shoulder, remembering the pain. She heard a dark portal opening and knew that he had left. Her sobbing didn't cease, but some of the numbness she had been overcome with ebbed away. She looked up at her friend and Guardian._

"_Come here," the Guardian whispered, her silver hair tinted red and tangled. The girl managed to drag herself over to her friend and grabbed her wrist, unable to stop the tears she had been releasing for the past five minutes. Her vision was blurred and she couldn't see Shamira clearly. The silver-haired woman gave her a weak smile. "Don't you ever listen to him. You will always have someone to love you, and you will always have someone to protect you. Never give up… I… believe in y-you…"_

"_Shamira? Shamira!? No! Don't leave me here! You… you can't leave me!" the red-head yelled, her body wracked with despair. She clung to her silver-haired protector and sobbed her heart out, wishing that someone, anyone, would come help her._

_No one ever came._

She knew she had to do it. She refused to cause anyone else to die. She refused to allow _him_ the satisfaction of taking her life. She was able to remember her power, now. She knew, all of those times someone was on the brink of death for her, she had the power to save them. She could have saved them. But she always shut down, forgetting her power, whenever _he_ was near her.

When the girl looked back down into the lake, she had finally made her decision. No more backing out. She carefully lifted her long dress, refusing to look back at her room a final time, and hoisted herself up over the railing. Her knuckles turned white from the death grip she had on the rail, and her heels were the only support she had on the small bit of stone on the outside of the railing. She closed her eyes and, without a moment of hesitation, let go.

And she fell.

It was a very surreal feeling, falling through the air. She felt as though she was dreaming, and in a few moments she would wake up as a young child and start over again. She could feel feathers brushing her face and arms, but she made no move to swat away the birds she assumed were around her.

During her fall, she thought. She thought about how she didn't have a purpose. She thought about her empty heart. She thought about how she was going to die. And she waited for the pain of her body hitting the water at such a high speed. But that moment never came.

There was no splash, no pain, no water, no lack of breathing, only a pair of strong, warm arms around her, keeping her from hitting the water.

"Meera, my god, what the hell were you thinking?"

The red-head slowly opened her gray eyes to look up into a face that held a mixed expression of worry, confusion, and disappointment. She looked away, unable to bear those emotions in his blue eyes.

"Just drop me, will you?" the girl, Meera, asked her blonde savior in the quietest volume she could muster and still be heard. She clenched her eyes closed as she felt his body take in a deep breath.

"Meera, why would you do this? Is it because of-"

"Don't say his name," Meera whispered as she winced, her eyes still closed. "Just drop me, and don't try and save me again. I have no purpose in this world. All I'll ever do is destroy. I cause pain and death, nothing more, and nothing less. The world would be a better place if I was gone," Meera explained in a monotone voice, her volume slightly louder than before.

But no matter how much she could have even tried to beg, the man would not let her go. She sighed but kept her eyes clenched shut. She heard sloshing water and felt his muscles move as he walked away. 'At least I had my aim correct,' she thought sarcastically. He carried her inside the castle and took her back up to her candle-lit room. He sat her down in the soft, wine-colored chair in the corner and stood on his knees in an effort to be at eye-level with her. He took her petite hands in his and began talking.

"Meera, I know you think that getting rid of yourself would be what is best for the people around you, but it isn't something you can decide on your own. There have been many times that I have regretted a decision I made, or how I treated someone. You have to understand that killing yourself would hurt us just as badly as anything _he_ could do," he explained, sternly but quietly. It was four in the morning and he didn't want to wake anyone up, not that his voice was naturally loud to begin with.

"Cloud, that is exactly why I need to go. It's because you care about me. And, anyway, I think you're the only person who really cares. But regardless, I won't let you die because of me. I can't let that happen again," Meera explained, her voice lowering in volume until she was barely at a whisper, to the man she could consider an older brother to her.

"Meera, you can't do this to yourself," he muttered. Meera looked up and stared into his bright blue eyes for about ten seconds before jumping into Clouds arms, sobbing in the comfort of his shoulder. Cloud held her for as long as she needed before noticing her crying had stopped and her breathing was deep and even. She was asleep.

Cloud picked her up and carried her over to her bed, tucked her in, and looked at the time. It was almost morning. He closed Meera's thick, black curtains and left her room, telling everyone in the castle that was awake not to bother the girl. And it was at that moment that he spotted three unexpected, but not at all unwelcome, guests.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that was fun. I got to make this chapter even prettier than it was before. I think I really like it now. Which is very exciting. For new readers, yes, this chapter is very dark, but the tone of the story gets lighter and more comedic before it gets darker again.**

**I would like to thank you all for your time, and I hope you enjoy my next revisions and, hopefully, updates.**

**C. E. Taylor**


	2. Meetings

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Meetings**

**A/N: I figure it is relevant to point out that this takes place after Kingdom Hearts III. The one that doesn't exist yet. So, all spirits forbid, the canon is probably not going to agree with this story. It could kind of be considered AU, and I will not change it to accommodate Birth by Sleep, Dream Drop Distance, or Coded. Honestly, it only really cares about Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts II. Riku is eighteen. Sora and Kairi are seventeen. Yeah. Life.**

**It's so interesting editing my old work. Some parts of it are exactly the same as how I would say them now, but others make me wonder what on earth I was thinking. Anyway, DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I make no profit from writing this story. If you steal Meera or my plot, I will be very upset with you. So please don't. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Dear Sora, Kairi, and Riku,_

_I hope you are all doing well! I know you just returned home again a little while ago, but I have another job, and I need all three of you for it. I don't want to explain much, in case this letter doesn't make its way to your islands. Some information I need to tell you should be kept from falling into the wrong hands._

_Organization XIII, in its earlier years, had an ally (though he only was an ally in order to keep them from attempting to exterminate him) who will remain nameless until I can speak to the three of you in person. It is a problem we need to deal with, so I will give you a method of transportation to meet with me. A portal will open for you in the same place that you originally left the islands. Don't worry; it will take you to somewhere all three of you are quite familiar with. In three days, enter the portal; I will meet you at your destination._

_Sincerely, King Mickey_

"I'm sorry, but King Mickey hasn't been here in quite a while," Cloud explained to the teenage trio. Sora and Riku sighed in unison.

"Well what are we supposed to do? We came all the way from Destiny Islands! Why would he send us another letter, but then not show up?" Sora asked, exasperated. Zoning out to let Sora handle the problem, Riku looked around the room they were in and took in all of the changes since he had last been there.

The floors were a polished, dark wood. The walls, matching the floor in color, were covered with large, intricate windows. The whole place was brighter, casting away the dreary feel it had for so long. Eventually, he tuned back into what Cloud was telling Sora.

"You three can stay here while I try to contact King Mickey. We have plenty of rooms. Just make sure you stay quiet if you go on the fifth floor," Cloud explained. The trio nodded and, as Cloud walked away, decided to make themselves at home. Riku left to go and look around, while Sora, in all of his curiosity, wanted to find out just why he needed to be quiet on the fifth floor.

Incidentally, Meera awoke with a start at the sound of someone falling off one of the lifts. She winced as she remembered the time that she fell off of that very same lift, but the thought of falling brought her thoughts to the events that had taken place the night before.

Meera blinked a few times and wiped her eyes before getting up and out of her bed. A bitter smile made its way on her face as her bare feet planted themselves in her soft, crimson carpet, the very carpet she had thought her feet wouldn't be able to bury themselves into ever again.

She shivered from a slight breeze coming in from an open window somewhere. Making her way over to her large, mahogany dresser, she pulled out a shawl to go over her bare shoulders, effectively killing two birds with one stone: being warmer and covering up her scar. She walked out into the hallway, jumping slightly as her feet touched the cold, wooden floor. There was a boy with spiky, brown hair rubbing his bum at the end of the hallway, right by the lift.

"Um," she hesitated. "Are you okay?" Meera asked, receiving the boy's full attention. He looked about her age and had dark blue eyes that sparkled with life.

"Oh no! I'm fine! Ah ha. Hahahah," the boy replied, awkwardly waving his hands in front of him. He squinted his eyes as a large smile shined on his face. "I'm Sora! It's nice to meet you. Are you the reason I'm being quiet?" he asked loudly. Meera blinked her eyes twice, her face blank of any emotion.

"You are the opposite of quiet. And my name is Meera. It's nice to meet you too," Meera replied. Sora opened his mouth to say something back, but the lift lowering and rising caught the attention of the duo. A girl with burgundy hair and a creative, pink outfit came running off the lift, panting.

"Sora!" she exclaimed in between breaths. "I heard you fall from all the way down on the first floor! You are _supposed_ to be quiet!"

"You aren't being quiet either!"

"At least I tried!"

"Excuse me," Meera interrupted, "but I'm going back to my room now. The two of you are giving me a headache." She turned on her heel and walked back into her room, content with knowing who the noise came from.

She returned to her mahogany dresser and pulled out a mid-thigh-length black dress with long sleeves. She brushed her shoulder-length, red hair and folded up her black shawl and nightdress. She quickly looked into her mirror to make sure her entire right shoulder was covered – and it was. She pulled out a pair of black, ballet flats and, after slipping them on her feet, picked up her dirty clothes and carried them into the hallway. Sora and the burgundy-haired girl with him were gone, so Meera carried her clothes to the lift and arrived with them in her arms on the first floor.

"Meera!" she heard a voice call to her. "Have you seen Cloud?"

The speaker was a woman with black hair flowing to the middle of her back. She wore all black leather, and her name was Tifa. Meera shook her head. "No, I haven't. I was looking for him too. Let me know if you see him?" Tifa smiled and nodded, walking past her.

Meera kept walking in the direction of a large, gold, double door. Above the door was a sign that read "Laundry." After leaving her laundry in the possession of a blue fairy named Barkeep, Meera exited the room and tilted her head at the sight before her eyes.

"You mean to tell me that, through all of your adventures, NEVER ONCE did you bathe or wash your clothes?"

Sora was being yelled at by the burgundy-haired girl Meera had seen earlier.

"Well, I did go in water when I visited Atlantica," Sora replied in a guilty voice and scratching his head. The girl huffed before noticing Meera watching them with her head tilted and her eyebrow raised. Sora uttered a "Huh?" and turned around. Sora and the girl both wore deer-in-the-headlights expressions.

"Are you two, like, dating?" Meera asked, straightening her neck. The girl blushed a shade rivaling the burgundy color of her hair, and Sora waved his hands awkwardly again – clearly a nervous habit – while he let out a nervous chuckle.

"No! Of course not!" Sora answered, calming back down. Meera just stared at them, her eyebrow still raised.

"Sure, whatever you say," Meera replied, pushing the subject to the back of her mind. "Anyway, I don't know your name," she said to the girl. "I'm Meera." The blush slowly receded from the girl's face and she looked more aware of the things going on around her.

"Oh! I'm Kairi."

"Kairi. Cool name. You guys know Cloud, right?" she asked. The duo nodded. "Have you seen him recently?" They shook their heads. Meera sighed and looked around the entrance room.

"What are you guys talking about?"

Meera's eyes widened at the sound of that voice, and she quickly scurried out of the room and outside of the castle. 'I suppose I could go get some ice cream from Uncle Scrooge. I know that couldn't have been _him_ but, that voice. It sounded just like him,' Meera thought.

"Hey Meera! How are ya?" she heard a female voice ask. She stopped and turned around, seeing her favorite shinobi. She had short black hair and wore a black and white headband; her name was Yuffie.

"I'm fine. Have you seen Cloud?" Meera asked. Yuffie's almost-always-present smile grew and she nodded.

"Aerith was talking to him a little while ago. He said he was going to the gummi dock," Yuffie explained. Meera nodded and Yuffie walked with her to Merlin's house, where she would wait for Cloud.

"How have you been, Meera?" asked a woman with long, light brown hair in a braid. She always wore red and pink and had bright green eyes. "We haven't seen you in a while."

"I've been fine I guess. It's only been a few days. Squall still silent?" Meera asked the woman, Aerith. The brunette smiled and Yuffie laughed in response to Meera's question.

"You know how much he hates it when you call him that, right?" Yuffie reminded Meera, still laughing a bit. Meera nodded, about to make another comment when the door opened and she spun around. She was a little surprised to see Cloud and a small mouse walk into the room.

"Is this her then, Cloud?"

* * *

**A/N: Well, I am still having fun. The next chapters might get changed a bit more than these first two did. And they will probably also start to get longer sometimes soon. But we'll see. There are some parts where I wish I could add more description, but it would require too much change of what I already have, which I am not particularly keen on doing.**

**Anyway, let me know what you think, and I'll update the next chapter soon!**

**C. E. Taylor**


	3. I Don't Like You

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**I Don't Like You**

**A/N: Hello there. Here's good ol' chapter three. I am currently a bit appalled by how short all of my chapters are. So, I combined chapters three and four. So now my story only has three chapters for now. But once I finish editing this, the next order of business is to continue onward with the plot! Which is truly a horrifying prospect to me, but I suppose I will have to get over it.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy the newly combined chapters three and four, now only chapter three, and I DISCLAIMER: do not own Kingdom Hearts, and make no profit from this story. Do not steal Meera. I will cry. She is mine.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Yuffie, can you go get Sora, Kairi, and Riku? Tell them King Mickey is here," Cloud told Yuffie. She nodded and promptly left Merlin's house. Meera just sat in a comfortable, green armchair in one corner. The mouse guy, King Mickey, was talking quietly to Cloud on the other side of the room. Meera knew they were talking about her. She also knew that the mouse knew something about her, but didn't want her to know that he knew. It made her uncomfortable, as cozy as the chair she was in proved to be.

Meera looked away from her brother-like figure and stared at the dark brown, cluttered wall. She sighed and waited. And she kept waiting. How long had it been? Who was Riku? Why was she involved in whatever was going on? Those questions, among others, plagued her mind.

After what felt like hours, but was truly only about fifteen minutes, the burgundy-haired girl, Kairi, came through the door with Yuffie. Kairi looked frustrated, and Yuffie - still smiling - was giggling quietly. Meera stared at them blankly.

Kairi noticed Mickey standing with Cloud and her scowl was immediately lost to the wind. She then smiled and took a seat on a couch the same shade of green as Meera's chair – probably a matching set. "Sora and Riku refused to come. They said they wanted to talk about 'guy stuff' and talk to you later," Kairi told the mouse. He looked skeptical but nodded in response.

"That's fine. I don't mind repeating it for them," Mickey assured. Cloud took that moment to take a seat next to Kairi, observing the mouse in front of them.

"We have quite a situation on our hands. I believe the best thing would be to fully explain to you all that has happened. There is a Nobody that has been around for a little while now. His name is Zopyris, and the main information you need to know about him is that he is a merciless, sadistic murderer.

"We have no records of who he is the Nobody of, and no records of his appearance. We do know, however, that he has a vendetta against a completely innocent girl," Mickey explained. He quickly glanced at Meera, taking in her carefully blank expression before continuing. "I needed you, Sora, and Riku because this girl needs to be protected. And Meera, here, can help you." That bit startled Meera into attention.

"What? What makes you think I can help them? I'm nothing more than a normal, teenage girl," Meera demanded, growing slightly nervous. Mickey just smiled at her.

"But you can. You probably aren't aware of it, but you have special powers that are inherited from a gene in your bloodline," he explained. Meera's heartbeat sped up. No one was supposed to know about her power. "You can summon fairies, which I don't know much about, and you have access to the Keyblade World," Mickey continued. She composed herself when he didn't mention what she thought he would and stared at the mouse, clearly not believing a word coming from his mouth. "I don't know very much about your abilities, but I feel that you will be greatly helpful to Sora, Kairi, and Riku."

Meera rolled her eyes and inwardly let out a breath of relief that he didn't seem to know about her Healing Touch. That would have given her away. But those other powers? What was going on? Wouldn't she have known about them? After all, she had discovered her Healing Touch on her own. She came to the hopeful conclusion that he had gotten the wrong person somewhere in that mousy head of his.

"You must be confused. I don't have any kind of powers. Seriously. If I did, don't you think I'd know?" Meera inquired. Mickey merely smiled again, a glint in his eyes insinuating that he knew something she didn't know he knew.

"I don't know much about your powers involving the Keyblade realm, but what I do know of them I can probably help you with," Mickey said.

Kairi was staring at Mickey intently, interested by what he had to say. This girl clearly had powers linked to Keyblades, yet she couldn't wield one. It almost seemed like the Keyblade chose her, but she didn't… qualify? Before Mickey could continue, Sora came bursting through the door.

"Sorry I'm late, guys!" Sora exclaimed. Meera stared blankly at him, like she had been doing to everyone since that mouse began talking to them, and Kairi gave him a small smile. He closed the door behind him and walked forward a few paces. "What did I miss?"

"Well, that mouse over there has the delusion that I have some kind of special powers," Meera explained, clearly still not believing said mouse. One of Sora's eyebrows rose up before he looked over at Mickey.

"What kind of special powers?"

"I can explain them to you later, Sora. For now, I need her to agree to help you, Riku, and Kairi on the journey I need to send you on," Mickey explained. "I am sending the four of you on a mission to stop Zopyris by whatever means necessary. From the small amount of information we do have on him, I have gathered that he is working alone, other than with lesser Nobodies of course. However, we can't have him going around wreaking havoc in all of the worlds. It upsets the balance. I need you to find him and cease whatever he is planning now, other than revenge. I feel as though it is more than that."

After a few moments of silence, Meera abruptly stood up, her eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. "I'm not dealing with this," she muttered before walking straight out of Merlin's house.

As the door slammed shut behind her, a single tear ran down the right side of her face. She attempted to make her way back to the castle, but her eyes were so blurry from held back tears that she didn't see a person coming and ran right into their chest.

* * *

Sora stared at the door that just slammed shut, entirely confused. Having not been there the entire time, and seeing her storm off moments after his arrival, he was entirely bewildered by what the problem was. He took in the expressions of the others in the room.

Kairi looked worried and was on the edge of the couch, almost like she was about to spring up and go after her. Cloud looked worried as well, but not confused at all. He seemed to know exactly what was going on. King Mickey, on the other hand, had a small smile on his face. Sora stopped his examination to go and sit beside Kairi in the available spot. She looked toward him and relaxed a bit, giving him a small smile. "Okay, so-"

Sora's question was interrupted by a high-pitched scream. At that point, Kairi's worried expression came back on her face and she muttered "I'll go see what's going on" before running out the door herself.

Sora sighed and slouched back into the couch. "Uh, anyway. This thing you need us to do. Do you have any leads? Any idea of where he could be?"

Mickey, who was distractedly pondering something Sora couldn't imagine, snapped his head in Sora's direction almost like he was startled. "No, actually. I don't know what to tell you. Your best bet is to travel to worlds you know, and ask your friends if they have been having any problems with Nobodies recently. That should get you on the right path."

"And Meera is supposed to help us with this?"

"Yep!" Mickey answered enthusiastically.

"Alright. Well, I imagine she'll calm down eventually," Sora commented.

"Oh, before you go," Mickey interrupted as Sora stood from the couch, "I thought you should know that, while I did intend to speak with all of you, I did not send that letter to Destiny Islands. Be careful Sora, alright?"

"That's strange. But alright, I'll be sure to look after everyone," Sora responded confidently. "I'll be making my way back to the castle to get some rest. And find Riku. I mean, he was supposed to be coming with me, but I dunno what happened."

* * *

"Oh, I'm sorry, I-"

Meera's head shot up at the sound of that voice again and screamed at the boy before her. She quickly jumped back from him and sprinted, as quickly as she could, all the way to the castle, through some parts of it, around it, and to the lake in the back. She stood still for a moment, catching her breath, before sitting down on a bench.

She decided to lie down and close her eyes, hoping that the boy hadn't followed her out there. When she eventually opened her eyes, she looked up and saw Kairi at the fourth floor balcony, looking down at her. With a slightly confused expression on her face, she found a vine and carefully climbed down to where Meera was.

"You okay?" Kairi asked her. Meera shifted to make sure her dress was still covering her right shoulder. When she decided it was, she relaxed and nodded. She sat back up, allowing Kairi to take a seat beside her. Meera stared into the water, not moving a muscle when she heard footsteps and ragged breathing approaching them.

"Riku? What are you doing?" Kairi asked, looking from him to Meera, and back to him and his wind-blown hair again.

"Running, avoiding weird lifts that don't work, and running into doors, _trying_ to apologize and see what that girl's problem is!" Riku exclaimed, gesturing toward Meera and taking a deep breath. "Who is she anyway?"

Meera looked over to the boy – Riku, apparently – before quickly looking away and staring intently at Kairi's face. Kairi raised an eyebrow, asking silently what happened. Meera blinked a few times, trying to think up a good thing to say.

"He ran into me and just startled me is all. I've had a bad week," Meera told Kairi. The burgundy-haired Keyblade Bearer smiled a mischievous smile and stood, pulling Meera over to the silver-haired boy. Meera bit her tongue before looking at him, then staring at Kairi like she was insane.

"It's simple! You both can apologize and forget the whole thing ever happened!" Kairi suggested. Riku glared at the girl, knowing that she hadn't screamed because he "startled her." He knew she was lying. He didn't want apologize for something that wasn't even the cause of her shriek of terror. Meera, on the other hand, could barely stand to look at the boy, much less speak to him.

Kairi cleared her throat expectantly.

Deciding to give in, Riku sighed before being the bigger person and apologizing for a problem that wasn't really the problem. "I'm _sorry_ for running into you and _startling_ you," he said, obviously not meaning it. Meera grunted and ground her teeth together.

Meera gathered all of the guts she could and looked up at Riku's face. Holding back a disgusted shudder, she stopped grinding her teeth to reply with, "Well, I'm _so sorry_ that I was _so __**rude**_. Oh please, forgive me!" Riku glared at her. She returned it just as fiercely, if not more so. Kairi sighed and separated the two, muttering something about "the best she could get" before sitting down with Meera on the bench again.

Riku made his way back inside and grunted, glaring at one of the three lifts that didn't work. He decided then that he would never trust the technology of a world other than his own. He walked up to the room he chose to stay in and lounged out on his bed, pondering why that girl had screamed when she saw his face, and then looked like she wanted to throw up when she saw his face again. 'Am I really that ugly?'

* * *

Meera and Kairi sat on the bench in a comfortable silence for about three minutes. Kairi looked at the girl with her, curiously. She didn't _look_ like someone who could summon fairies and a vortex into the Keyblade world. But, then again, she _also_ didn't look like someone Riku would have a problem with.

What had happened?

Meera had left Merlin's house, presumably to go back to Radiant Garden's castle, and somehow ran into Riku, who startled her to a near-heart-attack, and then she ran away. It made no sense to Kairi.

Meera, oblivious to Kairi's speculations, was looking at a group of crows flying around the general area. It intrigued her because, lately, she had seen crows every time she went outside or looked out her window. As she continued to stare at the birds, she mulled over her encounter with the silver-haired-teenager. She knew she was being paranoid and judgmental, but she just couldn't help it, especially when the reason of her paranoia ended up being a jerk anyway.

"I don't like him," Meera stated, still staring at the birds. Kairi's eyes widened and an eyebrow rose. She turned on the bench to face Meera completely, crisscrossing her legs.

"But why? You just met him a few minutes ago, right?" Kairi asked the red-head. Meera looked over at Kairi before staring at her lap. She sighed and mulled over how to answer the question. After a moment of hesitation, Meera looked back up at Kairi sternly, trying not to falter.

"Yeah, I just met him. I guess I just… He gives me this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I just don't like him," she explained, looking back up at the birds. Kairi sighed and pulled herself off of the bench, placing her hands on her hips. She knew she would get no better of an explanation from the girl beside her.

"I guess I'll go see what Riku's doing," Kairi said. Meera nodded, clearly entranced by the crows that were still above them. Kairi gave the girl one last look and made her way around to the front of the castle. Once she walked back inside the large front doors, she noticed a sign on the lift to her left. Someone had clearly, but hastily, written that it was out of order. Kairi smiled and made her way over to the stairs.

As she walked, she thought about how strange things were. They got a letter from Mickey, when everything was supposed to finally be over. So, they followed the letter's instructions to a place Mickey hadn't even arrived to yet. Then, said mouse king arrived late and explained the weirdest situation Kairi thought she had ever heard.

That was a lie. It wasn't the weirdest. But it was certainly up there.

So then, this very random girl who clearly enjoys the colors purple and black ends up having powers to help Kairi, Sora, and Riku on their mission. But, after all of that, the weirdest thing was that Kairi felt like she knew the girl. She felt like she knew her as well as she knew Riku and Sora, which was precisely why she just wanted them to get along.

As she reached the second level of the building, she eyed the doors nervously, hoping she could remember which one was Riku's. She made a very lucky guess and opened one of the doors after a male voice answered her knock with a "Come in."

"Riku, you see…"

* * *

Meera was thinking about how bizarre everything was turning out to be. She had more powers? That was just plain odd. Why wouldn't she have known? And then the entire Riku situation didn't make much sense either. But, alas, her thoughts were interrupted when, two floors above her, she heard a familiar, masculine voice.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR APOLOGIZING WRONG?"

She looked up to the balcony above her and saw Kairi's burgundy head poking over the top of it. She had a pleading look in her eye, but then she went back inside Riku's room. Meera rolled her eyes after suppressing a slight shudder and proceeded to attempt to climb one of the vines that covered the wall. After a lot of hard work and a few cuts on her hands, Meera reached the balcony and clumsily walked inside. Riku was talking, but she didn't really care. She brushed some of the leaves off of her dress and looked up, straight at Kairi. She cleared her throat.

"It's okay Kairi; he doesn't need to apologize again. His apology was just as legitimate as mine," Meera explained a slight, sarcastic smile on her face. Kairi sighed as Riku glared at the girl like he wanted to rip out each strand of her hair one by one. She groaned, looking back and forth between the two.

"Guuuuuys, you HAVE to get along sometime! We're supposed to be going on this journey together! Can't you at least be CIVIL?" Kairi pleaded, exasperated. Meera huffed and looked down. Riku stared at Kairi instead of Meera.

"She's the one who screamed at me while I was _trying_ to apologize," Riku explained, an unhappy expression on his face. Meera twitched slightly and looked back up at Kairi, her unhappy expression mirroring Riku's.

"I was obviously upset, and that jerk deliberately ran into me!" Meera combated, pointing a pale, accusing finger at Riku.

"She ran away and made me fall down an out-of-order lift while I was trying to figure out which way she went!" Riku replied, a bit louder.

"Well HE… Um… uh…" Meera trailed off, lowering her finger. She muttered something that Kairi couldn't hear while letting her angry gaze slide back to the floor.

However, all three of the people in the room were quite shocked when they heard a fourth voice that was very rarely angry.

"Would you two just STOP?" an upset-looking Sora yelled. Kairi turned around to look at him, seeing as how her back was facing the door, and her eyes widened at the bag of ice he held on his head. "My room is right next door and you, Meera, and _you_, Riku, are giving me a HUGE migraine, and I've never had a headache before in my LIFE. So please. Just STOP IT."

Riku bore a deer-in-the-headlights look. Sora had never yelled at any of them before. It was a very odd occurrence, just adding to all of the weird things happening since they received the letter from King Mickey. Kairi shot Meera a sympathetic smile before escorting the pained Keyblade Master back to his room, muttering about feeling her own headache coming on. That left Meera and Riku alone.

With a glare towards Riku, Meera declared, "I don't like you."

"Oh, yeah? Well I don't like you either!" Riku replied, glaring back at her. She huffed and made her way out to the balcony, resisting the urge to stick out her tongue like a child.

"Good riddance," she muttered, and she hastily attempted to climb down the vines she had used to reach the balcony.

* * *

**A/N: Well then. That's all I've got. I'll make an effort to write more soon, and I hope at least one person will make this effort worthwhile and actually read it. Yeah. As always, reviews are appreciated!**

**C. E. Taylor**


	4. Persuasion

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Persuasion**

**A/N: Wow. I am updating a story. For the first time in a very long time. To people who read this story before, I combined chapters three and four to improve the flow of the story, so it won't let you review this chapter if you reviewed my old chapter four. I would greatly like to know what you think, so leaving an anonymous review would work if you so desire.**

**That is, if there are any of my old readers willing to continue to read this after the longest hiatus ever. I apologize. Luckily I am in college now and majoring in Creative Writing, so I might actually be able to find time to finish this story.**

**Also a note for old readers, I didn't change anything drastically in the first three chapters, but they are much nicer now and a few things are different. It isn't necessary, but it would be a good idea to go back and read them again.**

**To new readers, welcome to the newest chapter (at the moment)! I hope you enjoyed the old chapters, and I promise I will make a solid effort to update this story as much as I can until it is done. Thank you for reading this far!**

**To all of my readers: the writing style from this chapter onward might seem very different than the first three. I am older. I have matured. And so has my writing-style. There's not much I can do about it, and I hope it doesn't disrupt the flow of the story too much.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I make no profit from writing this story. I do own Meera and my plot. Don't steal it. I will be angry.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Meera stared at her ceiling, thinking about the events of the day. After she had left Riku's room, she successfully avoided everyone for the entirety of the day. She managed to distract herself with various activities, from helping out with laundry to helping in the kitchens, to keep herself distracted from the problems that were on her mind. Unfortunately, night time meant sleeping, and sleeping meant trying to clear her mind. It wasn't working out very well.

She didn't like to think about the events that took place in her life two years prior. She was betrayed by someone she thought she could trust, and her entire life was sent spiraling out of her control. She had spent the past year attempting to avoid it, but now some royal mouse walked in and brought all of her problems straight to the surface.

She let out a frustrated sigh and sat up in her bed, understanding that she wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. She swung her legs off the side and stood up, grabbing a royal purple silk robe off of her dresser and slipping it on. She was going to go and do something that, honestly, wasn't particularly smart.

She knew the castle well, so she didn't need any sort of light to silently make her way down to the second floor and find a door that she had seen earlier in the day from the other side. Her gray eyes stared at it and the patterns carved into it. Sneaking into someone's room in the middle of the night was something she was aware was unethical, but she was considering doing it anyway. After all, if she could make the decision to kill herself on multiple occasions, she could certainly make the decision to sneak into someone's room.

Even if she didn't like them.

Letting out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in, she grabbed the doorknob and turned, first peeking her head inside to make sure the occupant was asleep. Hearing steady, deep breaths, she decided it was safe to enter and closed the door behind her. She padded over to the bed and knelt down right in front of his face.

She wrinkled her nose in distaste as she took in the features before her. His skin wasn't even close to the color she thought it would be; he was tanner, like he was frequently out in the sun. His hair was longer and the shade of silver seemed to have life in it, where _his_ hair had been dull and shoulder length. Her face relaxed as she continued to take in the differences between Riku and _him_. Even his eyes were different; they were the exact same color of turquoise, but Riku's held life and seemed to glint in the darkness where _his_ had been as dull as his hair.

And then she realized that, in order to compare their eyes, Riku's eyes had to be open.

"What on earth are you doing?" he asked, his voice thick from sleep. Meera's gray eyes widened and she stood up, brushing imaginary dust off of her thighs. She glanced back at the silver-haired boy's face and blinked a few times.

"I was just, uh, checking. I was checking to make sure," she paused, "that, um, you weren't seriously injured from chasing me earlier," she sped up at the end. She brushed a bit of hair behind her ear and looked away from his skeptical face, staring instead at the black crow she could see through the glass door leading to his balcony.

"As touched as I am by your concern," Riku began, sitting up in his bed, "wouldn't it have made more sense to check if I was okay, I don't know, back when I was trying to apologize?" Meera snapped her head back in his direction and saw the disbelieving expression that was settled on his face.

"I am a very proud person, Riku," she began, formulating a lie as quickly as possible, "and I didn't want anyone to know that I, you know, was a tiny, little, miniscule bit concerned for your well-being after I freaked out so much." She was proud of that explanation; it sounded legitimate and there was no way he could argue with it.

"Okay," he muttered, though it still seemed that he didn't believe her. "Which is why you felt the need to sneak in my room in the middle of the night and stare at my face." Meera stared at him for a moment before nodding. "Right. Well, are you satisfied that I'm fine now?" he asked, the blanket covering his chest slipping down. "See, no injuries," he continued sarcastically.

Meera tried to peel her eyes away from his bare chest. She realized that it made sense that he slept shirtless, but she wasn't necessarily prepared for a full view. Training her eyes on his face instead, she realized there was no way to convince him fully of her false intentions of sneaking into his room.

"Yes, quite satisfied," she replied. "Now if you could do me and my massive pride a huge favor and never speak of this again, I might forgive you for giving me a heart attack earlier today," she finished. Riku stared at her blankly and went back down in his bed.

"Yeah, sure," he muttered. "I'm going back to sleep now." The red-head blinked a few times before quickly making her way out of his room and back into her own bed, finally finding enough peace to surrender to sleep for the rest of the night.

* * *

"Meera, you really need to wake up now," demanded a familiar voice while someone shook her shoulders. She muttered something unintelligible and rolled over, shoving a spare pillow over the back of her head. The other inhabitant of the room chuckled, momentarily pleased with her success in waking the red-head up. "Meera, King Mickey wants to talk to you. Haven't you slept long enough?"

Meera removed the pillow from her head and stared at the burgundy-haired intruder in her bedroom, eyes squinting from the light shining in her window. "What does he want to talk to me for?" she asked. "I said yesterday I didn't want anything to do with it." Kairi raised an eyebrow, placing her hands on her hips.

"You mean when you said you couldn't deal with it and ran out of Merlin's house before listening to his explanation?" she asked. Meera furrowed her brows and sat up, pulling the robe she was still wearing, thankfully, tighter around herself. She didn't want Kairi seeing her scar and asking questions.

"I meant it," she responded. "This Zopyris or whoever is someone I am sure the three of you can handle on your own. Don't you all have Keyblades? I don't see how I could be any more useful than a Keyblade." It was Kairi's turn to furrow her brows at the girl's response.

"Aren't you jumping to that conclusion a bit quickly?" she asked. "You should at least hear him out. Maybe he knows something else, something really important that you aren't aware of."

Meera shoved her blankets off of her lap and stood from the bed, not responding to Kairi's comments. The room was silent but tense as she dug through her dresser for something practical to wear: a pair of shorts and a plain black shirt. "I'm changing," she told the burgundy-haired girl, breaking the silence. "So I'll talk to you in a minute. But can you, uh, leave for now?" Kairi nodded slowly before going out the door and waiting patiently for the red-head that seemed so much like someone she felt like she knew, but at the same time a complete stranger.

* * *

Mickey was sitting in a big chair in Sora's room, talking to the two males of the group, when Kairi walked through the propped-open door, Meera in tow. "Excellent," he said. "Meera, I didn't mean to upset you. Will you agree to at least hear what I have to say?" The red-head glanced around the room, her eyes lingering on Riku, before nodding and sitting down on the empty bed. Kairi sat on the floor, leaning up against the bed-rail.

"As I've already told three of you, there is a Nobody going by the name of Zopyris that is disrupting the balance of the worlds. He isn't directly associated with Organization XIII, which automatically means he must be powerful to be able to withstand their attempts at recruiting any sentient Nobody they could," the mouse began. "Our first records of his existence are from three years ago, but he didn't take any action that required direct involvement until a year later.

"It was brought to my attention that he had been caring for a girl, around the same age as you were at the time, until something happened and he cast her out. I don't know what she did to cause such anger, or if he had been planning to do so all along, but the girl was then put under the protection of a woman I have only heard vague stories about. Unfortunately, Zopyris killed the woman, leaving the girl unprotected again.

"I don't know where the girl is, but I imagine that Zopyris wants to kill her. However, I can't see that being his motivation for wreaking havoc on some of the worlds I've heard from. Something else is going on, and I need you four to figure out what it is and stop him," Mickey finished, looking around at the teenagers before him.

"And you told me yesterday to start by asking around with the people we know to see if they know anything, right?" Sora asked for clarification. The mouse nodded and directed his attention to Meera.

"I know you don't think you would be any help, but with the proper training I think your powers could be what makes this journey a success," he told her, a serious expression on his face. "Will you help them?"

Meera pulled her knees up to her chest and looked at the hopeful faces of the four people, besides herself, in the room. Sora was smiling encouragingly, Mickey staring at her seriously, Kairi looking up at her with a small smile, and Riku staring at her inquisitively. Her eyes locked with his curious turquoise ones before she clenched them shut and buried her head between her knees and chest.

"Meera? Are you okay?" Kairi asked standing up. Sora's smile fell and was replaced by a look of concern. The red-head shook her head and let out a shuddering sigh. She looked up at the other female in the room and gave her answer.

"I can't," she asserted, though her voice was quiet. "I really can't. This is too much. I just… I need to go. I'll talk to you later. I'm sorry," she finished, lightly shoving her way past Kairi and out of the room full of people who wanted something more from her than she could give.

* * *

King Mickey was at a loss. He dismissed the other three teens and made his way to the kitchen, hoping to grab some food to help him think of what to do about the problem he faced. He wasn't sure what it was about the red-head, but something told him that she needed to go on this journey. There were certain times in his life where his gut had told him something needed to happen, and it was always important that he listen to it.

But the question was how to convince her that she needed to participate. He wasn't entirely sure why she was so against it, unless she still didn't believe him about her powers. No, that couldn't be it. And he knew he wasn't wrong; it was one of the fairies who had told him of her powers. It wasn't like he misinterpreted Hikari, the light fairy's, words.

He reached the kitchen and was grabbing for a fresh roll up on the counter when another person entered the room. "King Mickey," he was addressed. "Did you finally get them all together to talk to them?" The mouse held the warm roll in his hand as he turned to speak to the blonde man before him.

"Yes," he answered, "but Meera still refused. I don't know why, but something is telling me that she needs to go on this journey. Is there any way you could talk to her, Cloud? Maybe at least see why she is so against it?" The blonde's eyes lowered as though he already knew, but he nodded.

"I can do that," he responded. "I'll let you know if she changes her mind, alright?" The mouse nodded and began eating his roll as Cloud made his way up to the fifth floor, in hopes that the red-haired girl would be in her room.

As luck would have it, her door opened up shortly after he knocked. The girl stared up at him, clearly relieved, and opened her door further to let him inside.

"I can't go with them, Cloud," she confided in him. The blonde moved to sit in the chair he had placed her in two nights ago. "You know why I can't. They'll be safer if I'm not with them. Whether or not they know it, they would be in complete danger of _him_ fulfilling his stupid promise to me. I'm not going to have more blood on my hands. I just can't."

Cloud stared at her. She began pacing in the middle of her explanation but dropped on her bed, clearly exhausted, when she finished. "Maybe you should give this opportunity a chance," he suggested. It had taken a lot for him to overcome his own personal demons, and he wanted her to be able to do the same. "With Shamira, she was only one person. Even I am only one person. But Sora, Kairi, and Riku are three people, and the strength of the light in each of their hearts is a force to be reckoned with."

Meera looked into her surrogate-brother's eyes and saw nothing but pure honesty. Going on some reckless adventure that would probably end up with three people dead was not something she wanted to do. She didn't want to learn about weird powers connected to Keyblades, and she didn't want to leave the safety of Radiant Garden. She didn't want to be around Riku because, as different as he was from _him_, he still managed to remind her of the pain she went through every time she looked at his face or heard him speak.

But if the one person she could fully trust, the one person who had been through hell and was managing to go on with his life perfectly fine, was telling her that it was something she should do, there was a chance she could give in to his argument.

"What if they get killed?" she asked, determined to flesh out all of the possibilities.

"What if they don't?" the blonde responded. Meera's mouth opened and closed like a fish before she broke eye contact and stared at the floor.

"What if they decide they hate me?"

"What if they decide they love you?"

"What if," she began, her resolve wavering, "what if they are helping _him_?"

"I'm not even going to play devil's advocate for that question," he responded. "I've known Sora for a long time, and I know that isn't something he would do. And he trusts Kairi and Riku completely, so I do too." The red-head looked back into his blue eyes. She furrowed her brow before slowly nodding.

"Okay," she whispered. "I guess I'll go. But I'm not happy about it. And I'm only doing it because you say it's okay, and I really don't like Riku so spending time around him is going to be awful, and Kairi and Sora are just going to make lovey-dovey faces at each other all the time, and-"

"Thank you, Meera," Cloud interrupted. "I'm glad you're going," he continued, standing up before pulling the seventeen-year-old up from her bed too. "I don't want you to be stuck in a rut like I was. And I hope this journey gets you out of yours."

* * *

**A/N: A bit shorter than I would have liked, but passable. That was fun. Man it has been a long time since I wrote fan fiction. Anyway, any and all reviews are appreciated. I may, one day, take the chapter down and put it up again to fix any grammar or wording issues, but I am overall happy with it at the moment.**

**And I updated.**

**The world must be about to end.**

**Are pigs flying?**

**Anyway, I'll see you all again in chapter five!**

**C. E. Taylor**


	5. Reluctant Departure

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Reluctant Departure**

**A/N: Wow. I am on a roll. I haven't been on a roll since seventh grade. I am in shock. All of my sentences are choppy. They are choppy because I am in shock. So now I am going to waste some time talking to anyone who cares to read my author's notes about my life.**

**I watched Spirited Away recently and have been pouring myself over fan fiction, because Chihiro and Haku are too cute. And I saw some really great stories, but they haven't been updated in forever. It made me sad. And then I realized I was being a total hypocrite. After all, I have never finished a chaptered story. Ever.**

**So I hope to change that.**

**While I am typing this author's note before I actually upload the chapter, I know myself well enough to know that I will feel the need to update rather quickly. I am going to fight this need. In an effort to get very, very far ahead of the chapter that is next to be posted, I will only update once a week. I will be much more likely to finish this story if I follow that plan and, as such, I will probably update on Sundays. Because I don't do anything on Sundays. I can pretend like it is homework for one of my Monday classes. It seems like a good idea to me.**

**Sundays.**

**And I have recently come to the realization that my plot, or at least the initial mystery behind Riku, is astoundingly obvious. Oh well, I can't do much to fix it. I was in seventh grade. It'll have to do.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I make no profit from this story. Don't steal Meera or my plot. I'll be super depressed.**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Never a fan of abrupt awakenings, but seemingly having attracted them as of late, Meera squinted her eyes open to a familiar sight leaning over her face. "Kairi," she muttered, opening and closing her eyes a few times to help them adjust, "why on earth do you feel the need to wake me up every morning? How early do you get up?"

The burgundy-haired girl just smiled and stepped back from the side of the bed, clasping her hands behind her back. "Cloud told us you agreed to come," she explained, the smile still on her face. Meera groaned and shoved a pillow over her own face, remembering exactly what she agreed to the day before. "You don't have to sound that upset about it," Kairi commented, her smile shrinking.

"It's not you," Meera replied, throwing the pillow off the side of her bed. "You're fine. I like you. I think we could even be friends. Sora's fine too, really. But Riku isn't," she explained, becoming more and more awake with each word that left her mouth. "Riku makes me uncomfortable. There are certain things about him that remind me of a situation I was in that caused me a lot of trouble, and he makes no effort to prove me wrong." She sat up, staring straight into Kairi's eyes. "I just don't want to cause you guys any more trouble than necessary. But Cloud convinced me that going with you is a good idea."

The smile came back onto Kairi's face as she sat down on the end of Meera's bed, leaning on one arm. "You know, Riku isn't as bad as you seem to think he is," she began. "And whatever situation he reminds you of, well, you just have to remember that this is different. And Riku wasn't there, then. Honestly, fighting with you was the most life I've seen in him in a while. It might not be positive, but at least you're bringing out something in him."

Meera tilted her head to the side before looking down at her nightgown and picking off a piece of lint. "I'm glad I'm such a positive influence," she muttered, flicking the lint onto the floor with her spare pillow.

"He's been sulking," Kairi explained. "There was a point in his life where he did some things he shouldn't have, and I think it's catching up to him. I can tell that he feels guilty, even though we've all forgiven him and it's totally in the past."

Meera's eyes widened and darted back up to Kairi's face. He had done things that he regretted? It couldn't actually be _him_ could it? "What… what kind of things?" she asked nervously, afraid of the answer. Kairi furrowed her brow, shifting into a more comfortable position.

"Well, I was captured once. Honestly, I probably shouldn't be telling you this since it isn't my story to tell, but if it will help you feel better, I don't mind," she interrupted herself. "Anyway, a not-particularly-nice person convinced him that, if he worked for her, she could find me and save me. So he agreed, thinking the deal made sense. It didn't work out so well, though, and she ended up convincing him that Sora had betrayed him. He got so caught up with it that the Darkness overtook his heart and he got possessed by a really powerful Heartless. He caused a lot of trouble, but he managed to find his way out of the Darkness, with King Mickey's help, and now he's totally on our side."

Meera inwardly let out a sigh of relief. She had enough issues with the silver-haired boy without suspecting his true identity was that of someone else, so she was glad to hear a story completely different than the one that led to her and the scar on her shoulder. "Oh," she replied. "That must have been hard." Kairi nodded.

"Well, basically, I would really appreciate it if you could, maybe, try and be nice to him?" the burgundy-haired girl tentatively suggested. "I'm just worried that arguing all the time will make him feel even worse, even though it's been almost three years." Meera nodded. For Kairi's sake, Riku's sake, and the sake of her own sanity, she knew she had to try and put her distrust for him aside; it wasn't like she could avoid him all the time. As difficult as it would prove to be, she agreed to make an effort.

* * *

Sora, no more fond of abrupt awakenings than Meera, was similarly disrupted from sleep that morning by someone bearing a similar, spiky hairstyle to his own. "Sora," Cloud muttered. "I need to talk to you before you leave. It's important." The teen grumbled and wiped his eyes before staring at the blonde standing beside his bed.

"Okay," he yawned, "get talkin'." Cloud sighed and opened the curtains that blocked the light from entering the large room. Sora groaned and covered his eyes with an arm before sitting up and looking back at Cloud. "Okay, okay," he gave in, "I'm paying attention now." He stood up from the bed and grabbed his shirt off of the floor, contemplating whether or not he should take it to the laundry room so that Kairi wouldn't yell at him for not washing his clothes again.

"It's about Meera," Cloud began, catching Sora's attention. "I need you to promise me you'll look after her. She isn't… well, sometimes she gets emotional. Excessively emotional." Sora cocked his head to the side in confusion. "She tried to kill herself, not for the first time, two nights ago."

Sora's mouth dropped open. "She certainly wasn't acting like someone that's suicidal!" he exclaimed, his voice cracking a little, dropping his shirt onto the bed. Cloud narrowed his eyes at the boy.

"Keep it down, will you?" he requested. "I'm only telling you because I needed someone in your group to know, and I trust you. Don't be hard on her. And try and keep Riku from saying or doing anything too overly offensive. I worry about her, so please keep her safe," Cloud explained in a softer tone. Sora's face relaxed into a more serious expression and he nodded once.

"Will do," he promised. "Thanks for telling me, I guess. I'll try and keep Riku in line," he added with a small smile. "I guess I'm going to go wash my shirt," he continued, picking up the small lump he had dropped on the bed. "Oh, if you see King Mickey, tell him I'll meet him in Riku's room, like he asked."

Cloud nodded and the two males left the room, heading in opposite directions. Sora, slightly cold due to his lack of a shirt, tossed the lump of cloth back and forth as he whistled and walked towards the lift – one that he was certain worked. His whistling stopped when he stepped on and saw Kairi and Meera, the latter with some of her own clothes in her hands. Her eyebrow rose when she saw Sora's shirt, assuming they were going to the same place.

"Do all guys sleep shirtless, or just you and Riku?" she asked. Kairi's head snapped in her direction and Sora's eyes widened. Meera was momentarily confused before she realized exactly what she said. "I-I mean, because you two are from the same place, right? So I just figured, you know, you would have the same habits, and, like, things like that in common. And you aren't wearing a shirt, so I just assumed. I assumed, you know, about sleeping shirtless," she sputtered out, trying to cover up her folly. Luckily for her, the other female on the descending lift took that moment to notice that Sora was, in fact, not wearing a shirt.

"Okay," Sora replied, the first to step off of the lift when it stopped on the first floor. "I'll just pretend like you didn't say anything." He turned around and walked towards the laundry room, leaving the two bewildered females behind. They glanced at each other simultaneously and then made their way off of the lift as well.

"So you aren't dating," Meera commented, making a valiant effort to remove any and all spotlight from herself. From the corner of her eye she saw Kairi's face light up to a red even deeper than it was when she noticed Sora was without clothing on his upper half. The burgundy-haired girl shook her head frantically.

"No," she squeaked, looking anywhere except at Meera.

"But you do like him," the red-head continued, still making her way towards the laundry room. Before Kairi could respond, the shirtless Sora was in front of the pair again, this time with nothing in-hand. He stopped in front of them and directed his attention to Kairi.

"I figured it would be a good idea to wash my shirt at least once," he told her with a smile, scratching the back of his head. Kairi's face stayed the same shade of red as she opened her mouth only to abruptly close it again. Sora didn't seem to notice the coloring of her face, as she nodded and he made his way back to the lift. The burgundy-haired girl continued to stare at the spot he had just vacated.

"I'll take that as a yes," Meera interrupted her staring. Her eyes locked with the red-head's and some of the color receded from her face.

"Yes, yes I do," she answered quietly. "Can you do your laundry on your own? I need to go, uh, talk to someone," she asked, looking back towards the empty spot where the lift would return shortly. A small smile, the first Kairi had seen, came across Meera's lips as she nodded, making her way to the laundry room by herself.

The red-head was proud of her ability to veer the conversation away from her slip-up. She certainly didn't want Sora and Kairi knowing that she snuck into Riku's room in the middle of the night to stare at his face. That would be embarrassing, whether or not they knew what her intentions actually were. Her thoughts were interrupted as she handed her clothes to Barkeep and exited the laundry room, only to find one of the three objects of her thoughts leaning against the wall beside the door – though, unlike his friend, he was wearing a shirt.

"So you agreed to come with us," he commented. Meera bit her lip, trying to ignore the familiar frightened shiver his voice brought her, and nodded. She had promised Kairi she would try to be nice, and that was exactly what she planned on doing. "What changed your mind?" Of course, nice was difficult - especially when her instinct was to snap at him.

"Curious, are you?" she asked, though she managed to keep some of the bite out of her tone. "Cloud talked to me and convinced me it would be a good idea." She turned and walked away from the boy, making her way towards the lift. She felt her eye twitch a little when she heard his footsteps behind her.

"Why didn't you want to go in the first place?" he asked.

Without turning or slowing down in the slightest, Meera responded, "It didn't feel like a good idea. I typically put people in danger when I'm around them, and there are certain people I would have to be around that find it particularly easy to get on my nerves." 'Kairi so owes me for not just yelling at him,' she thought to herself. She stepped onto the lift only to have Riku continue to follow her.

"Oh? I know Sora can get annoying, but I'm sure he doesn't do it on purpose," he jibed, intentionally twisting her words away from their intended purpose. He stopped the lift on the second floor and lightly grabbed her wrist, pulling her off behind him. She worked hard to suppress the urge to pull her arm away and run; it wasn't like he was leading her to her death.

"What are you doing?" she asked. He stopped in front of his own room, the door propped open, and pulled her inside where she saw Sora, Kairi, and Mickey waiting for them. Kairi had a huge smile on her face when she spotted the placement of Riku's hand. Meera sneered and pulled her arm out of his grasp, sitting down on an available chair. Riku plopped down onto his bed.

"Now that we're all here," the mouse began, "I have a few more things to tell you. Sora, you asked me earlier about Donald and Goofy. They can't come on this journey for the same reason that I need to return to Disney Castle as soon as possible; something is going on there that needs our attention. I am sure the four of you will do fine on your own. Similarly, you are going to want to leave as soon as you can; today, if possible. Zopyris grows stronger each day, and the quicker you can discover his plans, the quicker you can put an end to them."

"Um, sir," Meera addressed the king, "how am I supposed to learn to use my abilities if we leave now? Won't not having a way to defend myself put me in unnecessary danger?"

"It would, but I'm sure Sora and Riku here could teach you some spells until you get the hang of your own abilities," Mickey explained. "I've told Sora and Kairi as much as I know about your abilities, so they can try and help you in any way they can. It would be best if you took opportunities while traveling from world to world, or even in your down time, to work on mastering them."

Meera nodded, as overwhelmed as she felt. The past three days had gone by so slowly, but now that the mouse was telling her it was time to leave, everything felt rushed. She had to say goodbye to the world she had lived in for as long as she could remember, aside from some time three years ago, and goodbye to the people who knew her the best. She agreed to go with the trio on their journey, but she hadn't really understood how soon she would need to leave.

"I have to be getting back home now, but I wish you four luck," Mickey said, hopping up off of his chair. "If you ever need me, you know where to find me. I've left a gummi ship you can use, Sora, and I am assuming you remember how to pilot it."

"That I do," he replied with a smile. "Good luck with whatever is happening back at the castle, King Mickey." The mouse gave the group one last smile before leaving the room, assumedly returning to his home.

"Well," Kairi began, "I guess we should all get our things together and go, like he said. We could meet here once we're ready?" she suggested. The other three teens nodded and everyone except Riku left the room.

Meera made her way to her own room, pausing in the doorway. She wasn't going to have a bed of her own on this adventure. She wouldn't have a closet. In fact, she probably shouldn't even take any clothing with her. She walked inside her room, closing the door behind her, and began the laborious task of choosing something to wear that would last her for an entire adventure.

The shoes were an easy decision. She had a pair of lace-up, flat, knee-high black boots that were both comfortable and durable. She threw them out of her dresser and onto the floor. Kairi was wearing a dress of sorts, but Meera didn't see a dress or skirt as being practical. She pulled out a pair of jean shorts and chucked them on top of her boots. Lastly, she needed a durable shirt that covered her shoulder completely. After searching through shirt after shirt, she came across one of her older ones; a dark purple shirt that laced up the left side and had sleeves down to the elbows. It had never so much as ripped through the years she had had it, and she knew it was a good decision.

After she put on her chosen articles of clothing, she took one more glance around her room. She mentally bid goodbye to her dresser, her bed, the extra pillow she abused so frequently, her chair, and even her crimson carpet. She pulled the curtains closed and darkness fell on the room as she stepped out into a new portion of her life.

* * *

**A/N: I was going to go further, but ending the chapter with her closing the curtains sounded so very appealing to me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I would love to hear from you. You can look for an update again sometime on Sunday, since that is when I have decided I will update.**

**Thank you for reading! There will be some more Riku and Meera interaction next chapter, I promise. Though, you should know, I move my romances slowly. Especially between people who have never met before. Sora and Kairi might move a little faster, since they have had so much time to develop.**

**Again, thank you for your time!**

**C. E. Taylor**


	6. Teaching and Learning

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Teaching and Learning**

**A/N: A roll I still am on. Unfortunately, I am not Yoda. Anyway, it's nice to see you all again. Even though I can't see you. You know what I mean. If anyone read the old version of this story, you should recognize some bits of this here and there. Unless, you know, you don't remember it because you read it six years ago. I would understand that too.**

**I do feel bad about not updating. Really.**

**I hope I can make up for it with my improved descriptions and grammar and… everything. Even though I am not entirely sure where the plot is going at the moment. I'll figure it out. Eventually.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I make no profit from writing this story. Meera is mine, as is my plot. Don't steal it. I would be livid.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Meera crossed her arms and clenched her eyes closed, leaning back in the slightly uncomfortable seat she was perched in. Never before had she been in any kind of machinery that left solid ground except for the lifts in the castle, and never before had she felt quite as nauseated as she did on this gummi ship. After about five minutes of discomfort, she felt a hand on her arm.

"Meera," Kairi began, "are you okay?"

The red-head merely groaned and shook her head. When Kairi asked what was wrong, Meera pointed to her own stomach, still refusing to open her eyes.

"You have motion sickness?" she asked. Meera nodded; it made sense that it was called motion sickness since the motions of the gummi ship were making her sick. She finally opened her eyes and turned her head to face Kairi.

"How do I make it stop?" she asked, feeling particularly miserable.

"Well, sometimes I would get sea sick when I went on a boat back at Destiny Islands," the burgundy-haired girl explained. "If I distracted myself, sometimes I would feel better. It helps not to think about it, I guess." Kairi suddenly got an idea and a smile lit her face. She closed her eyes, held out her hand, and, after a bright flash of light, was holding her flower-covered Keyblade.

"Is that your Keyblade?" Meera asked when Kairi opened her eyes. She nodded in response. "It's pretty. But it's also really feminine. Does it actually get rid of Heartless and Nobodies?"

"Yep," Kairi responded with a chuckle. With another flash of light, she dismissed the Keyblade. "Generally, no matter how they look, they all get the job done," she explained. Turning to the silver-haired boy in the back corner of the ship, she called out, "hey Riku! You should show Meera your Keyblade."

Riku had been relaxing comfortably in the corner, vaguely paying attention to the conversation of the two females. He opened one eye to see Meera glaring and muttering angrily at Kairi before Kairi responded, just as quietly, and Meera relaxed. Their attention was back on him and he opened his other eye. "Why?" he asked.

Kairi looked slightly stunned and turned to Meera, leaving the floor open for whatever she wanted to say. "Uh, I'm just curious, I guess," she started. "I just want to see how it looks?"

Riku sat up straight and continued to stare at the two girls. Meera's expression was almost forcibly concerned, and Kairi's was hopeful. Her big eyes and slight nod urged him to just do what they asked, and he let out a sigh.

"Hold out your arm," he instructed the red-head. She furrowed her brow and crossed her arms, staring back at him skeptically.

"Why?" she asked, clearly not trusting him.

"Just do it," he commanded, a bit more sharply. He noticed her flinch but chose to ignore it as she hesitantly stuck her right arm out in front of her, her left arm dropping to her side. He closed his eyes and concentrated on an image in his mind: Meera holding his Keyblade. His success was proven with a bright flash of light and a thunking sound.

Meera's eyes widened as she realized that he had summoned his Keyblade into her hand, but it was too heavy for her to hold up and, as such, the tip dropped to the floor with a metallic clank. Using her other hand to help lift it up, she held the Keyblade in her lap, examining it. '_He_ didn't have a Keyblade,' she thought to herself, running a pale hand over the white wing at the tip.

Though Kairi didn't know it, her attempt at distracting Meera from her motion sickness was even more successful than she could have hoped. Though it wasn't much, every single difference Meera could find between Riku and _him_ made her more at ease around the silver-haired boy. After examining the Keyblade thoroughly, the inquisitive side of herself intrigued, she made a decision for Kairi's sake.

Meera stood, both hands holding the large, heavy key, and made her way over to where Riku was seated, plopping down beside him. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at the boy, trying her hardest to separate the boy in front of her from _him_. Blinking twice to compose herself, she used all of her strength to hand his Keyblade back to him. He took it and dismissed it just as Kairi had with hers.

"Why's it so heavy for me, but not for you?" she asked, making a valiant effort to be friendly. Riku looked surprised for a brief moment before a small smile came across his lips.

"I imagine that would be because you aren't someone the Keyblade chose to wield it," he explained, not wanting to test his luck with her civility. The girl nodded and leaned back in the seat, not looking at him anymore.

"It's pretty cool," she started. "You know, that you can summon a Keyblade." She looked down at her knees before taking another deep breath and looking up at him again. "Mickey said you could teach me some magic. I think I'd be willing to learn right now. I mean, it's not like we've got anything better to do."

Riku nodded and stood up, Meera doing the same. The red-head noticed that Kairi had gone up into the front, talking to Sora about something with a smile on her face. Riku cleared his throat to get her attention again.

"The first spell I learned was Fire," he explained once he had the girl's full attention. "Basically what will happen is you say the command, focus your energy in your hands, aim where you want the spell to go, and then push the energy out in that direction."

Meera blinked a few times, taking in his words. She didn't know how she felt about learning Fire. Fire was the element that scarred her shoulder. Fire was the spell _he_ was the most comfortable with. And, in that instant, a portion of the wall that got knocked down from seeing Riku's Keyblade was built back up with the similarity.

On the other hand, Meera knew she would need to know the spell eventually so, even though she emotionally shut herself back down, she was still physically present and prepared to learn to defend herself.

"Okay," she finally responded. Refusing to look over at the silver-haired boy, she lifted both of her arms in front of her and attempted to do as he explained: she imagined hot energy in her hands and aimed at a part of the wall that looked particularly sturdy. "Fire!" she commanded as she imagined the energy spewing forward.

Nothing happened.

Meera dropped her arms to her sides and finally looked over at Riku. "It didn't work," she pointed out. Riku bit back a sarcastic comment and tried to think of a way to explain to her how to push out the energy to form the spell.

"It isn't just visualizing the energy or the spell," he began. "You have to actually feel it – actually move the energy from your core, through your arms, and out of your hands." His brow furrowed in concentration. "I guess Sora and I learned so quickly because we can channel it through our Keyblade," he mused to himself.

"Yeah, well, I don't have a Keyblade," she responded, some of her bite slipping back into her tone. Her goal of being kind to Riku was getting more and more difficult by the minute, from seeing a similarity with _him_ to generally getting frustrated at not being able to do the spell.

"You'll be able to get it," he assured her. "Just keep trying."

So Meera listened. She tried once more, lifting her arms and trying to feel her energy move through her body. She clenched her eyes shut and concentrated on trying to find her core to pull the energy from - probably somewhere in her torso. She got so caught up in it that she jumped a few inches into the air when she felt a warm hand on her back and another mirroring its position on her stomach.

"Here," Riku explained, "is where the energy should come from."

Meera opened her eyes and turned her head to the side, relaxing her arms a little at the soft expression in his turquoise eyes. 'His hands are warm,' she thought; a few bricks fell down off of her emotional wall. She had fully expected his hands to feel icy, not warm. Suddenly noticing how close his face was, she turned her head back in front of her and straightened her arms again, focusing on finding the energy underneath where Riku's hands gently sat.

Feeling rather accomplished, she found the energy and could feel it move up through her torso and through her arms. "Fire!" she tried again, pushing the energy out through her hands.

It wasn't quite what she expected. There was a tiny spark of fire that went about a foot in front of her before fizzling into nothing. "That was good," Riku commented, removing his hands from her torso. "Much better than nothing."

"That was crap," Meera contradicted, dropping her arms again. "I wouldn't be able to fend off a cat with that, much less a Heartless or Nobody."

"That isn't the point," Riku insisted, fully facing the stubborn girl. "The point is that you went from nothing coming out to a little bit of fire, even if it wasn't quite as much as you would need in a real situation."

"Maybe I'm just useless. I'm probably not meant to do magic anyway."

"You aren't useless."

"That's bull. I have some stupid powers that no one knows how to teach me to use, and I can't even produce an adequate flame to defend myself. If that isn't useless, nothing is."

"You have to learn. You only tried twice. Did you really expect to be able to do magic without any effort?"

"No, but I don't see how I can put all of that effort into shooting out stupid fire if something is attacking me!"

"It gets more natural the more you practice!"

"I can't practice it if I can't do it!"

Kairi's attention was drawn back to the arguing pair when they started shouting at each other. She turned around in her seat to see Riku and Meera about a foot apart, shouting about whether or not Meera could do magic. It wasn't so much the fighting that got on Kairi's nerves, but the subject matter. In Riku's effort to be supportive, he had somehow managed to insult the red-head.

"I still don't like you!" Meera yelled, turning and walking back to her original seat, crossing her arms and glaring at the wall to her left. Riku, an exasperated expression on his face, moved to sit down in his original seat, leaning back in the corner and staring at the ceiling.

Kairi turned back to Sora who luckily missed out on the argument due to his focus on flying.

"They are going to be the death of us," Kairi told him, quiet enough to keep the other two teens from hearing. Sora chuckled and kept looking straight ahead.

"Maybe they just need to get out some kind of problem they have before they become the best of friends," he joked. "I mean, they were almost getting along for a while they, weren't they?"

"Well, yeah," Kairi replied, feeling the contagiousness of Sora's endless optimism. "I guess so."

Before they could continue the conversation, a familiar world came into Sora's view. "Twilight Town? I guess we can stop there. Maybe Hayner, Pence, or Olette will know something."

As he made his way to the world in an attempt to land gracefully, Kairi stood and went into the back to tell Riku and Meera of their destination. She sat down beside Meera and poked her on the arm. "We're going to Twilight Town," she said, "so you should get ready to go. Still feeling motion sickness?"

Meera relaxed and turned to look at her burgundy-haired friend. "No," she replied. "I guess you were right about being distracted. Thanks. I mean, even though now I'm all-" She was interrupted when the whole ship jerked forward, almost knocking her to the floor. Sora turned around and smiled at his three startled companions.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. "It's been a while since I've landed one of these. But anyway, welcome to Twilight Town Meera!"

* * *

**A/N: Again, shorter than I would have liked, but the end of the chapter is the end of the chapter. I had fun with this. Riku and Meera entertain me so very much. Anyway, I hope to hear from you, and I hope you enjoyed this installment of The Tale of the Lost!**

**Next time:**

**The four companions return to a world that we all know and love, and come face to face with someone they all thought was gone.**

**See you then!**

**C. E. Taylor**


	7. Twilight Town

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Twilight Town**

**A/N: Alas, I am still on a roll. I wonder how long I can keep writing these before my creative juices are all used up. Maybe I can get to chapter ten. My mother wants to kill me for not spending more time with her before I go back to college (though I am back at college at the point that you are reading this), but when my brain wants to write, it wants to write.**

**So that is what I am doing.**

**This is where things are going to start to get very different from my original version, though some of my favorite scenes and lines will certainly be kept. However, the changes are large, and I honestly don't even know what they all are yet. But I am excited about this chapter. I didn't really like this section in my old one, and now I get to fix it.**

**The tone of this story is pretty light for a while, with minimal action but some plot development, as well as character development. It does, however, get a bit darker later on. But for now, it almost annoys me how light it is. I hope no one else minds. O.O**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I am making no profit from writing this story. I do, however, own Meera and my plot. Please don't steal them. I would be very affronted.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

After having orderly gotten off the gummi ship, Sora decided it would be a good idea to go to Hayner, Pence, and Olette's hang out to ask them if they had been having any abnormal problems with Nobodies, as Mickey had suggested he should do. Walking through Twilight Town with three other teenagers in tow somehow made the teen feel more conspicuous than he ever had with Donald and Goofy travelling with him.

They arrived at the hang out and brushed the curtain aside, knocking on the wall to signal their entrance, and were happy to find the three teenagers exactly where Sora predicted they would be.

"Hi guys," Sora greeted sheepishly, scratching the back of his head "How've you been?"

The three looked up from where they were seated and bolted off of their couch and chairs, Olette jumping onto Sora with a hug. "Sora!" they yelled as the brunette hugged him.

"And Kairi, too," Olette added, pulling away from Sora. "It's great to see you again," she continued. "Who are your friends?"

Sora beamed as he said, "Well, the tall, sulking guy is Riku, the friend I was looking for last time I was here, and the short, sulking girl is our new friend Meera." Said two sulking teens, the three inhabitants of Twilight Town noticed, looked anywhere but at each other and had placed themselves on the outsides of Sora and Kairi, who were in the middle of the group.

"It's nice to meet you!" Olette greeted them, attempting to overlook their discomfort. Riku, especially, felt uncomfortable since he sort of knew the trio, but they had never met him. He had no future plans to tell them about that either.

"I'm glad you could find your friend, Sora," Hayner commented, opening his mouth to say something else when someone knocked on the wall, similar to how Sora had earlier, and swished open the curtain.

"Hey guys, did- Meera?" a familiar voice interrupted himself. The girl in question and her friends turned around, each one recognizing that voice from a different part of their life. "Oh, and Sora and the gang too. Do you come here often?" he jokingly asked the group.

"Axel?" Sora asked the red-haired male in front of him. It certainly looked like Axel, the same spiky hair and marks on his face, though he was dressed in normal clothes instead of his old Organization XIII cloak. Kairi blinked a few times in surprise, Riku managed to keep his face mostly blank, and Meera's eyes began watering as she sniffed and tried her hardest to hold back tears.

"It's Lea, actually," he responded, scratching his head. "Not totally sure how it happened, but I just woke up here one day a little while back."

"He told me you were dead," Meera whispered, though it was loud enough for everyone to hear. All seven pairs of eyes were on her as she tried to hold back her tears, much to the confusion of Sora, Kairi, and Riku.

"You know him too?" Kairi asked, her brow furrowed in curiosity. Meera took that moment to remember that there were other people in the room and her head snapped in Kairi's direction. She too looked confused before an expression of understanding crossed her face.

"That's right, the three of you would know him," she commented, almost to herself. "You did travel all over the universe. It would only make sense."

"I met Meera when she-"

"Axel!" the red-haired girl interrupted, her grey eyes widening. Lea's bright green eyes focused on her, taking in her panicked expression before his face was wiped blank again.

"I told you, it's Lea now," he responded, smirking. His attention was solely focused on Meera as he moved forward, grabbed her arm, and gently pulled her in the direction of the gray curtain separating the hangout from the outside world. Meera was still too shocked to fight him, whether or not she had wanted to go with him.

"But Axel-" Sora began.

Axel raised his left hand and called back over his shoulder, "It's Lea! Get it memorized already!"

* * *

"Are you okay with this?" Lea asked, sitting down at a table in a coffee shop after about five minutes of evading Meera's questions about how he was alive and why he dragged her away from her new friends.

"Okay with what?" the girl innocently responded, plopping down into the chair across from his. "And you know I don't like coffee."

"Then get tea. Or don't get anything," he suggested dryly. "That isn't why I brought you here. Have you even told them?"

Meera looked out the window on her right, observing the people here and there walking along the street on their daily business: buying groceries, hanging out with friends, making their way to or from work. It wasn't that she didn't know why Axel - or Lea, as he said - dragged her away from Sora, Kairi, and Riku. It was obvious to anyone who had the slightest inkling of how her situation was currently presented.

"It doesn't matter," she responded, refusing to turn her eyes back towards her friend's face. "They aren't the same person. I'm not completely sure I understand how it happened, but the worst Riku can do right now is accidentally remind me of some painful memory I want to get rid of."

Lea sighed and leaned back in his chair. "You understand that, on the path the four of you are on, they are going to find out eventually, right?"

"I'm sure they will," Meera agreed. "And that is precisely why I don't want to tell them. I'm not ready to talk about it, and I honestly don't think they are ready to hear it."

"But don't you think they would prefer to hear it from you first?" the male commented, shifting his chair again to lean forward instead of back. "What if _he_finds them when you aren't around and makes them think... well, he could manipulate them into thinking that it was always how things were in the beginning."

Meera still didn't emotionally respond. Her attention was focused on an ebony crow, like those she kept seeing lately, perched on a railing near the window. Conveniently for her, a waitress had never come to the table to take any orders, so she was able to easily stand and make her way out of the shop. Something drew her to that bird in an even stronger way than her fascination with them back in Radiant Garden.

Lea swore under his breath and followed after her, assuming he had upset her by bringing up something she probably regretted, but he stopped short when he almost tripped over the red-head. She was crouched on the ground, scrutinizing a parcel that sat below a black crow. Lea was getting sick of these crows everywhere. Ever since he had woken up in Twilight Town, he saw at least three crows - or the same crow but three times - every single day.

"You really shouldn't touch that," he suggested, crouching down beside her.

"I need to take it," she asserted, clearly not even having heard the ending portion of Lea's explanation back inside the coffee shop. She reached her hand forward to the parcel but stopped about an inch away. Her eyes darted back up to the bird. It was staring at her. Something in its beady eyes was telling her to take it. It was compelling her to reach her hand forward that extra inch, grasp the parcel with her fingers, and keep its contents with her at all times.

And that is exactly what she did.

Before Lea could even attempt to stop her, the parcel was in her hands, though she made no move to open it. She simply slipped it into one of the pockets of her shorts.

"You've gotten more reckless," Lea pointed out, rising to his feet. "The old you would have thought a decision like that through for quite a bit longer." Meera also stood up, though her action was in response to the female voice calling her name from a bit further down the street.

* * *

About five minutes after Lea had pulled Meera from the hangout for who-knows-what reason, and Sora explained that he was trustworthy enough to not hurt their new friend, Hayner and Olette offered up their homes as places for the four visiting teenagers to sleep. Pence's house was smaller, but there was plenty of space with Hayner and Olette so he didn't need to worry about it.

"Aren't you guys worried at all?" Kairi asked before they left the hangout. "I mean, Axel did abduct me. Even if he had his reasons that sort of made sense. The point is that it would be someone else. Or she might run away from him and get hurt."

Sora shrugged as he watched the three teens that lived in Twilight Town gather their belongings. "I trust him, and Meera didn't seem to be struggling. I'm sure he won't let anything happen to her."

"Riku?" Kairi asked, hoping that he would side with her.

"I don't really care what she does with her spare time," he responded. "If she was to hang out with him, who are we to stop her?"

Kairi glared at the two friends and turned on her heel, almost stomping past the curtains. She was going to go and find Meera and make sure everything was okay. If they didn't care what Meera was doing, then they shouldn't care what she did either. It made sense in her head.

She didn't know which way the red-haired pair went, but she tried going to the right. Usually she found what she needed to when she went to the right, so that was exactly how she planned to find them. She saw a few other people walking along the streets, but most of them seemed to be in a rush. Perhaps they were trying to get to work, and were coincidentally all late. No, that wouldn't make sense.

Suddenly, instead of appearing to be rushing, all of the people on the streets around her seemed to be in slow motion. She was still moving at her normal pace, but the limbs of the other inhabitants of the streets were blurring, moving slower and slower until all movement and life around her came to a complete stop.

The burgundy-haired girl tentatively walked up to one frozen woman and scrutinized her face. She poked the woman's arm. No response. She blew on the woman's face. Still no response. "Hello?" she asked. Again, no response. Backing away, she scanned the street again for any sign of life or movement; when she spotted someone a bit further down, she let out a breath she wasn't aware she had even been holding.

"Excuse me," she called out. The person was clearly a woman, though her style of dress was vastly different than that of the average residents of Twilight Town. "Do you know what's going on?" she asked, making her way towards the woman. The closer she got, the more details she could make out. The woman had shoulder-length, curly brown hair with the darkest brown eyes Kairi had ever seen - almost blending in with her pupil. She wore a tapered, aquamarine skirt that wrapped around her hips and trailed in the back with a plain black halter shirt that reached just above her belly button.

And her dark eyes were trained directly onto Kairi.

"Um, excuse me?" Kairi repeated. The woman remained silent, though her eyes softened into a look of confusion.

"You should not be able to see me," the woman said, her voice ringing like church bells, "nor should you be able to move. What is your name?"

"I'm Kairi," the burgundy-haired girl responded, though reluctantly. The woman moved forward.

"Well, Kairi, you should know that only certain people have the ability to see me," she explained. "I am Evelynn, and I protect the many different paths and gateways to my own world. Tell me, do you know a young woman with red hair that goes by the name 'Meera'?"

"I..." Kairi interrupted herself. What if this woman wanted to hurt Meera? It seemed as though she was the one who froze everyone, though it was rather strange that Kairi was immune to that power. "Yes, I do."

"Excellent," Evelynn replied. "Then please, I am running short on time. Would you be willing to pass on a message to her from me?" The burgundy-haired girl nodded. "Tell her that the parcel she picked up is something she should always keep with her, and if she is ever in trouble, all she needs to do is say my name to the object that is inside." With that, the strange woman disappeared in a flash of light, and the people on the streets began moving again, this time at a normal pace.

One man ran straight into Kairi, glaring at her and muttering about how she appeared out of nowhere. Once she managed to compose herself, she continued her search for Meera with renewed vigor. After all, not only was she worried, she also had a message to pass on.

Quickly walking through the streets, she scanned every building and alley in hopes of seeing her friend. It was almost ten minutes later when she spotted the spiky hair that could only belong to Lea beside the short, red-haired girl she was looking for.

"Meera!"

* * *

"Maybe we should go after them," Sora attempted again to persuade Riku. Almost immediately after Kairi left in such a rush, the brown-haired teen began to worry. What if there were still Nobodies? Or Heartless? What if Kairi got attacked while she was looking for Meera? What if that Zopyris guy showed up out of nowhere and abducted her?

"Kairi can handle herself," Riku commented, "or did you forget again that she can use a Keyblade with ease?"

"I didn't forget anything," Sora responded defensively. "She just has less experience than we do. Who knows how much things have changed since we've last been here? There could be street thugs!"

"This place is too peaceful for that, Sora," the silver-haired teen responded. "Besides, I spent more time here than you did. I think I would know. Let's just go to Hayner's house already." Hayner, Pence, and Olette had all of their belongings in hand and were staring at the two as though they had sprouted three heads each.

"Well," Sora tried to think of a good reason for them to wait for Kairi and Meera, "we can't just move on without them. They are our friends! Or have you forgotten that?"

"First of all, I wouldn't call Meera a friend," Riku began, "especially since she clearly hates me. I haven't forgotten that Kairi is our friend. A friend would understand that she is capable of defending herself from any unlikely enemy that would show up. But maybe you see her as more than that?" he jibed.

Sora colored. "Even if she would be fine, that's not the only point. What if we learn something important? You don't think that Kairi would want to help us on our quest? I, for one, wouldn't want to be left behind."

"It isn't like she just abandoned us for the rest of our lives," Riku argued. "I imagine she's probably going to find Meera and Lea and then take Meera to Olette's house. Or did you forget that she was here when Olette offered to let the two of them stay there?" Said brunette's eyes darted back and forth between the two males as they continued to disagree. "She isn't stupid."

"But she might worry about us if she doesn't know where we are," Sora tried. "What's the harm in us going to look for her? You know the city better than either of us does. We could help her look for Meera so we can waste less time."

"And that returns me to my original point: It isn't our business what Meera is doing."

Sora remembered something that he thought could convince Riku. "It is _my _business. I promised Cloud that I wouldn't let anything happen to her. Who knows? This visit could bring up something from her past that could make her want to jump off a bridge! Or a roof."

Riku raised an eyebrow. "What, is she suicidal or something? But fine, if you're so adamant about it," Riku finally conceded. "Though it is interesting that you conveniently forgot about that until Kairi was involved," he joked, turning and making his way through the curtain. The three teens of Twilight Town followed suit, apparently still a bit too intimidated to make comments of their own.

* * *

**A/N: I had difficulties with this chapter, and my lovely beta ArmadillloHunter was a huge help in the argument between Sora and Riku right there. Some bits and pieces of plot progression are getting introduced. Fun stuff. Thanks for the reviews I've gotten, and I'll have the next chapter up in a week! **

**C. E. Taylor**


	8. Doing Something Right

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Doing Something Right**

**A/N: Hi there. I am proud I managed to get this chapter out today. Honestly, I don't like how it turned out. I had an immensely hard time writing it, and it got to the point where I wanted to throw my laptop across my room in frustration. It's super short, which I apologize for, and the descriptions get quite lackluster. Maybe one day I will come back and edit it, but right now I just want to be done with it so that I can move on.**

**Anyway, there is some relevant character development here. Yeah. And thank you to everyone who reviews. And thank you to my beta ArmadillloHunter, even though she hasn't yet seen this chapter. Really, I just want to get rid of it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I own Meera. And my plot. Don't steal them. I'll… I don't even have a good word for it today. Just don't do it. Please?**

**Without further ado, I present chapter eight!**

* * *

Meera stared at Kairi as she was attempting to explain what had just happened to her. All she could pick out was "stop" "time" "lady" "portal" and "you." It was entirely unhelpful; how was she supposed to form any conclusions from that set of words?

"Kairi," she interrupted, "calm down. Take a few deep breaths, and then use punctuation when you talk."

Said Keyblade-wielder did as she was told. She braced herself against the brick wall beside her as she thought of a way to more clearly convey to her new friend exactly what had happened. "Well," she began, "there was this lady named Evelynn. And I think she knows you. And she stopped time, but I could still move. She told me to tell you that, involving whatever you picked up today, if you are ever in trouble, all you have to do is say her name into it and... she would protect you? Something like that. She said to always keep it with you."

Meera crinkled her face. "If that isn't suspicious, I don't know what is. Did she have black hair?"

"No," Kairi answered, confused.

"Well, then. Pretend I never asked," Meera continued. She thought, perhaps, that this "Evelynn" was behind the crows that seemed to be following her everywhere, but the mental image they gave her was of a woman with curly, black hair. Therefore, if Evelynn didn't have black hair, she must not be the crow-lady. She was about to continue asking Kairi about exactly what happened, curious as to how everything seemed to involve her lately, but she was interrupted by the sound of two teenage males bickering.

"I told you they would be fine."

"But you didn't _know_ that! What if-"

"It doesn't matter 'what-if', Sora. The point is that they are fine. Perfectly safe. Standing right there. Completely unharmed."

Sora pouted, but his face lit up a little when he saw the expressions of the two females. Lea was just apathetically leaning against the wall, his eyes closed. "Oh, hi."

Meera raised an eyebrow and Kairi smiled. "How nice of you to come looking for us." The burgundy-haired-girl stepped closer to the pair as she spoke.

"You should know that he didn't even consider the idea until you decided to leave, too," Riku contributed, earning him a glare from Sora.

"Oh?" Meera asked, staying where she was. "I see how much my presence is valued." Kairi turned around, as though she was going to apologize for them, but Riku spoke before she got the chance.

"It wouldn't have been a problem if you hadn't just run off with Axel, or Lea, or whoever, without even giving us an explanation," Riku bit back. It annoyed him that she would try and blame them for not "valuing her presence" when she made such selfish decisions to begin with.

"It isn't any of your business what I do or who I hang out with!" she exclaimed, not realizing how close her words were to Riku's when he had been justifying _not_ going and looking for her. It seemed his own argument was turning back on him.

"That was exactly my point!" he yelled. Lea's eyes opened at that moment, and he scrutinized Meera's expression. While her face had tensed, she didn't seem to be upset. He chose not to intervene. After all, if she was going to keep the truth about _him_ a secret from them, he would give her the opportunity to prove that she could handle the consequences.

"It didn't sound like it was your point," she responded, though not yelling. "It sounds like you don't think Kairi and I can handle ourselves. I know I suck at magic right now, but I'm not an invalid, Riku. And Kairi is perfectly fine on her own."

"I didn't even want to come and look for either of you!" Riku was still yelling. Meera took a deep breath and tried to ignore the memories that his voice yelling at her was dragging up from the depths of her mind. She could handle it. _She could handle it._

"I'm not sure which is worse," she snapped, "thinking we can't handle ourselves without someone breathing down our shoulder at all times of the day, or not even caring at all."

"It's hard to care when you make it so abundantly clear that you wouldn't do the same for us!"

Meera's heart skipped a beat. _"I could never care about you now that you've made it clear that you don't give a damn about me!"_ It was too similar. She had built up her wall; her wall had kept out the memories of yelling and violence. Unfortunately, her wall wasn't strong enough to withstand both yelling _and_ similar words and meanings. It felt as though a part of her sternum cracked, and the world around her began to blur as tears filled up her eyes. She didn't want them to see her like that, so she turned and ran. She didn't know where she was going; she just ran and ran until she was exhausted and slumped down against a wall, curling up into a ball and openly crying into her knees.

* * *

"Damn," Lea muttered. "I should have seen that coming." He turned his green eyes on Riku, taking in the confused expression painted on his face. Sora and Kairi had simply observed the exchange with their mouths slightly open and their eyes wide. Lea pushed off of the wall and started off in the direction Meera had run off in when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't," Riku said. "I don't understand what I did, or why she hates me so much, but this is my problem and I'll deal with it on my own." Lea turned and scrutinized him again. He seemed sincere; the confusion was certainly genuine, and he even looked a bit concerned. He wasn't sure that hearing even more of Riku's talking would help the problem, but Lea supposed it wouldn't hurt the situation overly much to at least let him try. He nodded and got out of Riku's way. The silver-haired-boy only briefly hesitated before taking off in the direction Meera had gone.

"Axel," Sora addressed the used-to-be Nobody, "what's going on?"

"It's Lea, kid. How many times do I need to tell you?" he explained, facing the pair he was left alone with. Sora's eyes grew steely and Kairi's sparkled with concern. This was a problem he hadn't anticipated, though he really should have. He could either tell them what was going on, against Meera's wishes, or simply refuse to explain. "And it isn't really my problem to share." He went for the second option.

"But Lea," Kairi began, "if she is really in trouble, or something is seriously wrong, don't you feel like we should know?"

Lea shook his head slightly. Those two had barely known Meera for a week and they were already almost as concerned about her as they would be for any other friend they'd had for years. "The only reason I know about her problem is that I was there for a good portion of it," he explained. "I imagine she'll tell you when she's ready."

"Does this have to do with her trying to kill herself a bunch of times?" Sora asked, forgetting that Kairi hadn't been made aware of that fact. The girl's eyes widened, but Lea spoke before she could ask for clarification.

"She's still trying that?" he asked exasperatedly. She had only tried once when she had been in _his_ custody, and he had hoped it was a one-time thing. Apparently not. "Her ability to rationalize her own actions has always astounded me, but this is taking it to a whole new level."

"Wait, Sora, what are you talking about?" Kairi finally asked. He turned in her direction as though he had almost forgotten she was there.

"Oh. Well, Cloud told me before we left to keep an eye on her and that she tries to kill herself every now and then," he explained as if was no big deal. Kairi remained silent as Sora thought about exactly what he said. "I don't suppose that would have been enough to provoke her to try again, do you?"

"Sora, didn't you ever think Riku and I should know that?" she asked, frustration seeping into her tone. "Maybe he would stop being so harsh if he knew that she was mentally unstable!"

"She isn't mentally unstable!" Sora explained. "When she isn't in one of her suicidal spells, she is completely normal."

"That doesn't make her mentally stable. It just means that her instability has to be provoked," the burgundy-haired girl responded. Lea decided the argument had gone on long enough.

"Look, it should be fine. I was just talking to her earlier and, once she gets her emotions out of the way, I'm sure everything will go back to normal," he comforted the two. "Well, then. I'm going home. If you need me, you can ask Hayner where I'm staying. If you don't need me, don't bother me."

He walked away as Sora and Kairi exchanged a confused glance. "Well, I guess if he thinks it's fine..." Kairi began.

"Then it must be okay. I'll trust him. He was, apparently, there when everything happened," Sora finished. Kairi faced him directly.

"Were you really that worried that I couldn't handle myself?" she asked him, her voice soft. His cheeks lit up, but not quite enough to catch the burgundy-haired girl's attention.

"I mean, I trust you and I don't think you're helpless, but I just don't want you to hurt or abducted or anything like that," he explained, scratching the back of his head and avoiding her eyes. She smiled.

"Thank you, Sora," she responded. "It makes me happy that you care about me."

* * *

Meera didn't move when she felt someone sit down beside her. It wasn't like she didn't know who it was. That did not, however, mean that she wanted to deal with him. She would have liked nothing more than to be able to sit by herself and let out her emotions, but it appeared he wouldn't let that happen.

"I don't know what I did-"

"You didn't _do_ anything," she interrupted without raising her head. "This isn't a problem you can fix, Riku."

He was silent for a moment. "Fine. I _do_ know what I did. I yelled at you. And it got you upset. That's what I don't get."

"You don't need to 'get' anything," Meera responded. "It isn't your problem."

"You make it my problem when you start freaking out and running away from us," he explained. She looked up then. His expression was apologetic, and his lips were placed in a grim line. "Did you ever consider that, maybe, the reason I don't care is that you expect me not to?"

"Maybe I wouldn't expect it if you proved me wrong," she replied quietly, her eyebrows bunching together. He looked straight ahead of him again as he thought of a response.

"Well, if we're going to keep going on this journey together," he began, "then Kairi was right, back in Radiant Garden. We should at least try to get along. Truce?" he asked, looking back at her and sticking out his hand.

She stared at it with an expression he likened to how one would look if they smelled vomit in a trashcan they were passing. Ignoring his hand, she pushed herself off of the ground. He looked away as she wiped dirt off of her shorts and legs. It was unfortunate that she wasn't going to agree. He supposed he would just have to try harder... and yell at her less.

Or, at least, that was his plan before she saw her pale hand stretched out in front of his face. He looked up and saw one of her slender eyebrows raised expectantly. "Are you just going to keep sitting there, or are you going to grab my hand and stand up?" she asked. Riku smiled a small smile and grasped her hand, fragile-feeling and so much smaller than his, before rising to his feet in front of her. Her grey eyes didn't seem particularly happy, but she didn't look upset anymore either. He supposed that meant he did the right thing - finally.

"Olette offered to let you and Kairi stay the night at her house," he said. "I can show you there. If you want, I mean." Meera tilted her head before nodding and following him.

They didn't talk much on the way there. It seemed that neither one of them wanted to disturb their new truce with snappy words or feelings, and Meera certainly wasn't feeling anything _un_snappy. It didn't take them long to reach Olette's house, however, and before Meera knocked on the door, she turned to face Riku again. Seeing his face got less and less difficult every time.

"Thanks," she told him, "for caring enough to come after me." Without giving him a chance to comment, she knocked on the door. Only a few seconds later, Kairi opened it and smiled.

"Glad to see everything worked out," she said, glancing at Riku's surprised expression. Meera simply nodded and walked through the door with the other female, leaving Riku to stare at it the closed slab of wood as though it was what thanked him instead of the red-haired girl.

Yes, it seemed he _had_ finally done something right.

* * *

**A/N: Well, there you go. Sorry about the second half there. I really did have issues with it. It included me staring at the screen for about two hours, hoping the words to convey what I wanted to convey would just magically pop into my head. Review if you so desire and, as usual, the next chapter will be up on Sunday!**

**C. E. Taylor**


	9. Enchanting Eyes and Scorching Scars

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Enchanting Eyes and Scorching Scars**

**A/N: Hello again. It is nice to see you. Thanks to my two lovely reviewers for sticking around even through my unsatisfying chapter eight! I am now going to shamelessly advertise before never speaking of this again (until chapter 18). Do you like Yu Yu Hakusho? Do you have an affinity for either Kurama or Hiei? Do you like continuation stories that don't just follow Yusuke? Do you think my writing style is successful? If so, you should hop on over to my profile and check out my newest story, **_**Heart of Life: Alea Iacta Est**_**. It is both Kurama/OC and Hiei/OC, though when it comes to the latter, you have to squint. A lot. But there are two more stories following that one where the squinting becomes unnecessary.**

**So you should read it.**

**On a different note, I am hoping this chapter will be less painful for me than the last one. I apologize if it ever seems like there has been a shift in my writing style. Or if I forget that my characters can see. I'm really used to **_**not**_** describing physical surroundings right now. Because my OC is blind in my other story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Kingdom Hearts. Don't steal Meera or my plot or Evelynn or Miranda or any of the other people not from KH. I would jump off of my roof into a nose.**

**And even though this chapter is currently unbeta'd, I'd still like to send a shout-out to my friend, beta, and co-author for **_**Heart of Life**_**, ArmadillloHunter!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Meera took a sip of the carbonated beverage in her hand, almost choking on the bubbles that seemed to go up her nose. Was it really necessary to distract herself so thoroughly? Apparently so. Riku was sitting across from her, staring at some spot in the table he seemed to find especially interesting, and Sora and Kairi were happily chatting the day away next to them. Was this a truce? Ignoring someone?

"If we're being realistic," she heard Kairi say, "there's no way we can go to every single world the two of you have ever visited and ask every single person if they've noticed anything strange going on." Meera silently agreed. She imagined that would probably take years. Granted, she wasn't sure just how many worlds Sora and Riku had been to total. Probably a lot.

"Well, yeah," Sora agreed, leaning forward, "but what else are we supposed to do? The King didn't give us any other leads, and I certainly don't know where else to start." Meera again understood his point. Whether or not she knew anything about the situation that she wasn't sharing, the brown-haired leader of their group had no other place to begin. Did that guilt her into telling them everything she knew about the situation? Absolutely not. There was no way it would be _that_ relevant to the situation at hand.

The red-head reached her hand down to her side, fumbling with the package she had picked up the day before. After inspecting it thoroughly, she came to the conclusion that it was some strange mirror. Around the outside of it was a strange language that she couldn't read, yet some part of her seemed to know what it meant. It essentially told her that the mirror could be used for her own protection, and also to travel "home." Wherever that was.

Riku, across from her, was leaning back in his seat, staring blankly at the ceiling. He hadn't even bothered trying to tune into Sora and Kairi's conversation; he had a much more important matter on his hands. 'I do not,' he thought then, crinkling his nose. 'The reasoning behind Meera's issues with me is _not_ more important than saving innocent lives from this Zopyris guy.' He sighed and sunk a little further into his seat.

A good five minutes of banter between Sora and Kairi later, a blonde waitress came up to the table. The expression on her face was one of boredom, and she was loudly chewing gum. Her green eyes disdainfully passed over the teens until they reached Riku – who still was not paying attention. "Do y'all want to order any food?" she asked, her eyes locked onto the silver-haired boy's frame.

Sora and Kairi looked up, startled that they hadn't noticed her presence until she spoke. Riku briefly glanced at her, oblivious to her obvious attraction to him, before shaking his head and refocusing his gaze on the ceiling. Meera's grey eyes darted back and forth between the two, taking in the situation at hand. She lightly shook her head as well, both to clear it and to signify that she also didn't want any food.

"I'll have the soup of the day," Kairi said. Sora just shrugged and leaned back a bit in his chair. After the waitress wrote down Kairi's order, she walked away with one last glance at Riku. Said silver-haired teen was lost in his own thoughts

'She really does seem to hate me, even with this truce,' he thought, scrutinizing a glittery speck on the ceiling. 'I shouldn't be so bothered by it. Maybe she just hates everyone. She isn't particularly friendly.' He could hear the murmur of Sora and Kairi's conversation going into one ear, but their words didn't actually reach his mind.

Meera, on the other hand, was still paying attention even while focused on her own problems. "It's not like they have phones we can call or something," Sora pointed out. Meera pulled the mirror from her pocket, tracing her fingers along the edges where the strange language was engraved.

"Well, yeah," Kairi conceded, "but there must be some way to get them all in one place at one time."

'Maybe I should tell them,' the red-head thought. 'Maybe Lea is right. It would be better for them to find out from me instead of _him_. He could twist what happened. And I don't want them to think there was anything more going on than there actually was.'

Riku leaned forward, resting his head on his fist. 'No, that can't be it. She was friends with Cloud, and at least acquaintances with the other people in Radiant Garden. And she gets along perfectly well with Sora and Kairi. It really is just me,' he mused. Generally, it didn't make much sense to him. Even before he had said a word to her, she had already seemed to hate him. It wasn't as though they had met before, and he was pretty sure he didn't have a Nobody like Sora and Kairi did. So what was it? Some other vague recognition?

The waitress took that moment to return to the four teens with Kairi's soup. She did not, however, leave once she placed the bowl on the table. "Are the four of y'all on a double date or something?" What was she doing? Meera was relatively certain waitresses weren't supposed to encroach on the personal lives of the customers. She could have been wrong, though.

"No!" all four of them exclaimed, a different emotion in their voice. Sora's held nervousness, as though he did think of it as a double date – or a normal date – but didn't want anyone to know. Kairi's voice held embarrassment, as though she had been caught stealing a slice of someone else's birthday cake. Riku's voice was defensive, as though she had accused him of some horrible misdeed. Meera's voice was panicked. She certainly didn't want anyone thinking something was going on between her and _Riku_, of all people.

The waitress looked relieved and kept her green eyes on Riku. "Great to know. Can I get anything else for anyone?" she asked with a wink. Meera raised an eyebrow. The silver-haired teen still seemed to be unaware of the obvious flirting in his direction. Was he that dense?

"No thanks," Sora responded. The waitress pouted before turning and leaving again. Was she really that desperate? Apparently so. Meera didn't understand what she could see in Riku – it wasn't like his eyes were enchanting, or his hair a slightly exotic, abnormal color. He wasn't even charming.

"Do you have any ideas?" Kairi asked the two, eating a spoonful of soup. Meera stared at her with wide eyes, and Riku looked equally startled.

"For what?" he asked.

"Have you really not been paying attention at all?" she asked, exasperated. He sheepishly averted his gaze, staring out the window. "We're trying to think of a way more time-efficient to talk to everyone than going to each and every world. Are you really that out of it?" He didn't answer. Kairi sighed and turned to Meera. "What about you?"

"I don't know much about traveling to worlds," she began, "but I don't know. If there isn't some kind of communication other than just traveling, I don't see how there's anything else we can do." Except, she told herself, if she just told them what she knew. What if it was the answer to all of their problems? No, it couldn't be. There was absolutely _no way_ it was all about her.

"Exactly," Sora said. "So we just have to keep trying until _someone_ knows _something_. There's nothing else we can do."

"Nothing else you can do about what?"

All four teens jumped as the same waitress piped into their conversation from a little behind their table. What was she doing, stalking them? Meera looked away from her and focused her attention back onto the mirror in her hands. A bit of the light from the ceiling reflected off of its surface. She didn't know what to do. What if it _was_ about her? Was she putting all of them in danger by not telling them?

"Well, you see," Sora began awkwardly, scratching his head, "we have a whole lot of friends. And we haven't seen them in a while. And we miss them. And they all live really, really far apart from each other. But we can't figure out a way to get them all together in one place."

The waitress scrunched her eyebrows together, still chewing on a wad of gum. "Well that's easy," she said. "Just throw a really big party somewhere centralized. It _is_ almost Christmas, after all."

"Oh," Kairi said. Sora seemed too surprised to respond, Riku was tilting his head as though finally half-paying attention, and Meera was just annoyed that she hadn't thought of such a simple solution first. "I do suppose that would make sense."

"Not a problem," the waitress commented with a smile on her face. "Am I invited?" she asked, again staring longingly at Riku. Sora chuckled nervously, and Meera assumed it was because he wasn't allowed to tell normal people about how there were other worlds; it would upset the balance.

"Well, the most central place isn't really somewhere that I think you could reach easily," the brown-haired boy explained. The blonde pouted before groaning and walking away. As helpful as she had been, Meera was glad she left. The fact that she had been listening in on their conversation, and not even to take their orders of food, made her uncomfortable enough. And then she just happened to have a great idea. _And_, for some strange reason, she was infatuated with Riku. Riku! It made no sense.

'Maybe if he dyed his hair, got different color-contacts, and a bit of plastic surgery, he wouldn't bother me as much. And smoked so much that his voice sounded completely different. That could work,' she thought. 'No, that's no way to deal with my problems. They are not the same person. _They are not the same person_.'

"So Sora," Kairi began, "what would you say is the most central place?" she asked, an eyebrow raised. The boy crinkled his nose in thought. There wasn't really a _world_ that was central – other than Disney Castle, but that was out of the question – but there might be somewhere large enough. Radiant Garden? No, that might hold some bad memories for some of the Princesses. Where else? Where would it make sense to throw a really, really large Christmas party? Oh.

"Well, Halloween Town would make sense," he suggested. "Or, more specifically, Christmas Town." Where better to throw a Christmas party than the very world that it hailed from? "So, how exactly are we doing this? How do we even contact everyone?"

"We could send a letter to King Mickey," Meera suggested. "If he managed to make one reach you guys, he can probably get some kind of notice out to the people you know from the other worlds."

Sora nodded. The suggestion did make sense. "I can try to find a way to contact him and see what he can do."

"We should make it a ball," Kairi quickly suggested, earning bewildered expressions from the other three at the table. "I mean, it'll make it fun. And I'd like to dress up. And to get Meera all dressed up," she explained with a smile. "Plus, I know you're both just _dying_ to wear some super nice clothes. Can't let the two of us outshine you!"

Riku looked as though he cared less and shrugged, looking back out the window. Sora's blue eyes were wide and Kairi continued to smile. "I guess that's fine," he said.

Meera pocketed the small mirror again and looked to her new friends. "I guess that's fine. But I don't really have anything to wear to this… thing." Her voice was dry, but she wasn't going to argue; if Kairi thought it was a good idea, she had no reason to disagree. And she supposed she would allow the burgundy-haired girl get her as dressed up as she wanted to.

"That should be fine," Kairi replied. "I'm sure there are places around here to find something. We've got a day or so before we even need to leave for Halloween Town, and I need a dress too. In fact," she said, looking between the two boys and then back at Meera, "we could go right now. I need to talk to you, anyway."

Meera shrugged. "It's not like I have anything else I need to be doing."

After paying for their food, the four exited the café and went in separate directions: Sora and Riku probably to find their own nice clothes, and Kairi and Meera to go dress hunting. It wasn't easy to find formal-wear stores. They passed one that was just for males, wondering briefly if Sora and Riku were inside, and continued scouring each and every corner of Twilight Town. Finally, after what felt like hours but was really only about twenty minutes, the two girls found a store with both male and female formal-wear.

"This should work," Kairi said, pulling her friend inside with her. Meera, even though she had a large quantity of dresses back in her closet in Radiant Garden, had never been one for shopping. Not that she was a tomboy – she just never felt the urge to have more clothes than necessary. Kairi looked through dress after dress, pulling out a few every now and then. Meera could only hope they weren't all for her. She was more concerned with the dress's functionality: it needed to cover her entire right shoulder, or she needed some kind of jacket or shawl that would do the job.

"Okay," Kairi finally said, her blue eyes scouring the store for fitting rooms. "Aha! There. Let's go try them on!" She seemed far too excited for Meera to really be able to understand her thought process, but she followed her friend's trail and closed herself inside one of the three fitting rooms. From the one beside her, three dresses came falling from the ceiling – no, not the ceiling. From Kairi tossing them over the partition. "Try them on. If any of them feel right, let me see, okay?"

"Mhm," Meera quietly responded. Her first option she barely even wanted to bother trying on. It was pink, and while the color worked for Kairi, that particular shade of pink clashed with her red hair. And clashing was generally bad. But she did try it on. It fit well – how Kairi guessed her size so perfectly, she would never know – but it wasn't something she wanted to be seen in publicly. It was tight all the way until her knees where it fanned out around her calves and feet, and it was a halter top. There wasn't a mirror inside the fitting room, but she didn't need to look at herself to know that she did not plan on wearing that particular dress.

Taking it off and sliding it back onto her hanger, she got out the second dress. More her style, it was black. It was covered in tiny sparkles that made it look like a cloudless, night sky, and she thought before she put it on that, perhaps, this would be the dress. It had a sash around the waist and, again, fit her body perfectly. It even had a sleeve over the right shoulder that completely covered her right shoulder. But, somehow, she wasn't feeling like it was right. She took it off and reached for the third, and final, dress.

In opposition to the first dress, she immediately knew that _this_ was the dress. It was purple, which she was certain was a color she had some strange affinity towards, and s beautiful combination of simple and intricate. She inspected it further after slipping it on. It had a heart-shaped neck-line and was tight down to her hips. At that point, the silky part of the dress tapered down the right side over layers of tulle that gave the skirt its shape. There was a single, crystal flower on the left hip and a few small stones around the top of the dress.

The only problem was that it was strapless.

She silently slid her door open just enough to see if anyone was outside; she would be damned if she didn't get a chance to see how the dress looked. Certain that Kairi was not going to come out any time soon and that no one else was in the store, she crept out of the fitting room to see how she looked in the mirror. It fit her just how she hoped it would, and it didn't even make her look sickly-pale like the black dress might have. She loved it.

"What happened to you?" a familiar voice asked quietly. Her hand flew to her shoulder and she turned around, staring into Riku's turquoise eyes in shock. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, and the expression on his face was one of pure concern.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, finally getting a hold of herself. The silver-haired boy raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the box in his left hand. 'Oh,' she thought. 'That would make sense. He _would_ need clothes too.' She blinked a few times and backed up to the wall, surprised Kairi hadn't come outside. What was she doing? Had she planned this?

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" he asked. That really was the question, wasn't it? She had been wondering for the entire day whether or not she was going to tell anyone, and along came Riku, effectively taking the decision off her shoulders – whether or not that was a good thing.

"That depends," she started. "If I don't, will you pretend like you never saw it?"

"No."

"Fine, Riku," she snapped. She turned on her heel and walked back into her fitting room, taking off the dress. No matter how much drama it had just caused her, she was still going to buy it and find some way for it to cover her shoulder. Was it really so bad that Riku would know what happened?

'Yes,' part of her mind told her. 'Yes, it is so bad.' Yet another part of her mind was relieved. The only person she had told about what happened was Cloud, and Lea knew because he was there for a lot of it. Maybe it would allow her to feel lighter once it was off of her chest.

She exited the fitting room to see Riku still standing there, staring at her expectantly. She hung up the first two dresses, attempting to ignore his penetrating stare. Without acknowledging his presence, she lightly tapped on Kairi's door. "Kairi," she called, "I picked a dress. Sorry I didn't know you. I'm going to go talk to Riku, okay? I'll see you later."

"Okay," Kairi called back knowingly. Perhaps she _had_ planned the whole situation.

Meera finally turned around and sniffed disdainfully before brushing past Riku to pay for her dress at the register. She could almost feel him following behind her and she glared at him when he plopped the correct amount of munny onto the table in front of them. The employee smiled and handed the dress in a bag to Meera before the two left the store.

She didn't say a word to her companion, nor did he try and make her talk. She was looking for somewhere far away from people, somewhere she felt she could forget about the world, before she was going to tell him anything. She found such a place on top of a hill where she could imagine the sunset would look spectacular – maybe that was why they called it Twilight Town.

"You know the Nobody we're looking for?" she finally asked, placing her bag onto the ground. It was impossible for her to keep the bite out of her tone, and she sat down. Riku followed her lead and stared off of the edge of the hill beside her.

"Yeah," he responded.

"The girl King Mickey said he wanted revenge on. It's me," she explained, pausing before she would explain further. He didn't make a sound. "I met him, and we sort of… I liked him. I thought he was a nice guy, and trustworthy, and I spent a lot of time around him. I'd lost a good portion of my memory at the time, so I didn't know where I was or what I was doing. He made me feel safe, like nothing could hurt me. It changed, though. After a while, he found out that I could completely heal someone just by touching them and pouring my energy into it. I'm not sure how he found out, because I didn't even know at the time.

"He wanted me to use it on him every time he was injured, but I told him I couldn't. It would have killed me, using up every last drop of my energy. He started to get angry all the time, and he would hit me every time I refused him. He didn't make me feel safe anymore. He made me feel like a prisoner. One day, I guess he'd had enough of my stubborn attitude and he came to the conclusion that hitting me wasn't enough. He cast a fire spell directly onto my shoulder and left me in the middle of some forest. He told me he would wait to get his revenge. He planned on allowing me to live long enough to find people I loved, and who loved me, and then he would kill them. After they were all dead, he would kill me too," she finished, refusing to look at her companion. He still hadn't made a sound.

Meera's thoughts were racing. Would he put it all together? Would he understand why she behaved the way she did towards him? No, probably not. It didn't seem like he knew enough about the situation, otherwise he would have already guessed what she assumed the truth was. So she waited, staring out over the town, until Riku finally spoke.

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**A/N: Yes, yes, I know this chapter came out at the last possible minute. And I apologize. I had a lot going on today, and I've been having difficulty being motivated to write this story. But, as promised, I got it out, and I will again next Sunday. Reviews are always appreciated, and I hope you liked it!**

**C. E. Taylor**


	10. Fairy Magic Pt 1

**The Tale of the Lost**

**PandaShadow**

**Fairy Magic Pt. 1**

**A/N: Well hello there. So here's the next chapter. Sorry it was posted, technically, on Monday morning. I have a super hectic schedule right now, and I had some difficulty here.**

**I'm in the double digits now! Is it bad that my main reason for continuing to write this story is just so I can be done with it? A part of me loves it, but another part of me feels like it has stifled all of my creative juices over the years. I don't know, as much of my baby as it is, I think I'll be glad when I can finally say I've finished it. It's gone through so many different stages and plots and… everything.**

**Anyway, we learn more about Meera's powers in this chapter. Along with, you know, seeing what Riku has to say from the last chapter. Sorry about that cliffhanger, by the way, but it just felt like it was supposed to be there. And you should also know that, at this point, I think this is AU. The entire universe of KH is getting so confusing right now, and I'm having difficulty with the mechanics of heartless and nobodies, so even though my methods of where Zopyris came from aren't canonically accurate, just roll with it. I started this in 2007. My theory was valid then.**

**Relevant question/explanation: I am certain that I am not writing my best at the moment. So I want to now from you readers (if any of you actually read my author's notes O.O) if you would rather I try and put this on a pause until I am feeling it and can write to my full potential, or if you want me to keep forcing out chapters even if the writing quality is not even close to my best. You can message me, or review, or whatever. I just need to know what you would prefer.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I do own Meera, all of my other OCs, and my plot. So don't steal it. I'd be shattered. Into billions of tiny pieces.**

**Enjoy!**

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"So I guess this kinda makes me a jerk, huh?" Riku asked. He couldn't help but feel bad. It explained why she had gotten so frustrated and unsure with the fire spell back in the gummi ship. It also explained why she ran away or got uncomfortable whenever Zopyris was mentioned.

"Only a bit," Meera responded dryly. She wasn't sure what reaction she had expected but, staring out over the tow in front of her, she knew that hadn't been it.

"I'm sorry, then," he replied.

And that was even less of what she had expected. "Oh. Um," she started. "Apology accepted. I guess." It was strange; she knew he had no idea the full extent to which he was involved, yet his apology still seemed genuine.

"But you have to admit that it was stupid not to tell us," he said sharply.

"I didn't think it would affect anything!" she defended. There was a bit more of what she expected. It was better – she felt much more comfortable being snarky than she did sincere.

"This guy is after your friends, you said," Riku pointed out. "So wouldn't it make sense to _tell _us that someone is trying to kill us?"

"But- I- but- you're really my friend?" she asked. She was genuinely confused. She understood his point, but when it came to _Riku_, she always thought he only cared because King Mickey said that they needed her. She never thought that he considered her a friend.

"I mean - yes?" he responded, turning to face her.

"Oh. Well thanks," she responded awkwardly, refusing to look at him still. "I guess... well, I thought you could care less what happened to me."

"I - um - I - of course I don't want anything bad to happen to you. Because Cloud," he said. She finally snapped her head in his direction for the first time since she had explained the origin of her scar. "And we need you. Yup, especially Sora."

"Right," she snapped, glaring at his stupid, sparkling eyes. When she thought he was actually being nice, he just went and turned it around into something different and obligatory. "You only care because of other people. And _Sora_. What, are you secretly gay lovers or something? That would break Kairi's heart." Changing the subject seemed like a good idea at the time.

"No! Of course not! I like girls!" Riku exclaimed.

"Oh really?" she asked, feeling comfortable with the conversation again. She stared disdainfully at his silver hair. "So that's why your hair is so long and shiny, and why your belly button is visible in your outfit?"

"Why are you looking at my belly button?" he asked, his eyes slightly widening in confusion.

"I- what? I mean. Well," Meera stuttered, slightly flustered at the slight subject change. "It was staring at me," she said. She mentally facepalmed. Was that the best she could think of?

"It's not! And it's not a crime for a man to take care of how he looks. I like my hair like this," the silver-haired male defended himself.

"Oh? I bet Sora likes how it looks too," Meera retorted.

"Well, he did mention the other day - Wait! No! That's not the point! He didn't mean it like that!" Riku exclaimed.

"Sure he didn't," the red-haired girl remarked, sarcasm dripping from her voice like oil from a hole in a car.

"No! He likes Kairi! He told me he does," Riku continued.

"I knew it!" Meera said, turning back towards him.

"Wait, did you just say all that to get that out of me?" he asked. "Were you fishing?"

"What is that even supposed to mean? I've never gone fishing," she replied. She couldn't remember. Had that been her intention? No, she had only been trying to change the subject, and his hair was such a convenient object for ridicule.

"Sure you haven't. That was just plain underhanded," he pointed out.

"I didn't do it on purpose," she replied, honestly and innocently. "I still think you're gay. Now I just know that it's one-sided."

"You are barking up the wrong tree! I am totally straight. Like an arrow," he defended, using his hand to indicate the existence of a straight line.

"Like an arrow," Meera repeated dryly. "Your creativity astounds me."

"And if you say that creativity is gay too, then you are grasping at straws. Don't even go there!" he continued to defend himself. Meera raised an eyebrow. Perhaps he hadn't noticed her sarcasm. She hadn't expected he would get quite _that_ flustered.

"And now you're using clichés," she pointed out. "I suppose you're right. You aren't creative enough for me to use that as an argument."

"Hey! I am plenty creative," he said. Well, he was certainly taking everything as an insult. "Why are you so convinced that I am gay?"

Meera smiled the very first smile she had given him and tilted her head to the side. "I don't, really. It just seemed like a nice conversation topic." Riku opened and closed his mouth a few times before responding.

"You are shameless, Meera. That was completely unnecessary. Here I was, trying to be all nice, and you just had to go and ruin it," Riku said, turning to fully face her as he crossed his legs.

"I _was_ being nice," she retorted. "I could have chosen a different topic. Like your face. That one would have been much more insulting."

"First my hair, and now my face? May I ask what is so repulsive about it?"

Meera paused. That was what she had been trying to avoid. How could she even answer that question? She really couldn't. It just wouldn't work. She would either have to tell him the truth, or stealthily change the subject again. She was interrupted from her thoughts by something tugging her hair.

"Obviously it's the lack of red. All of your _green_, and _blue_, and _silver_. Cold colors. Not warm colors. Warm colors are much better," a high-pitched voice remarked from beside Meera. The red-haired girl turned her head in that direction only to spot what appeared to be a fairy floating in the air in front of her.

The fairy was the height of one of her fingers and had long, curly red hair – a brighter red than Meera's. Her skin was somewhere between the normal peach and orange, and her eyes were like the fiery orange of the sun. She just had some white cloth wrapped around her, similar to how one would wear a toga, and she wasn't wearing shoes.

She flew closer to Meera's face. Neither Meera nor Riku had responded to the fairy's comment. "I'm Ignis," she introduced, poking Meera's pale nose in greeting.

"I- what?" Meera asked, still unable to understand where this fairy had come from. Then she remembered what King Mickey had said about her powers – all of the parts she hadn't believed. He had said something about summoning fairies. Was this one of them?

"I'm one of the fairies that protect the Keyblades," she explained, her hands on her hips. "Don't tell me people don't even _know_ about us anymore. We're so important! This is beyond ridiculous!" She was flying around in circles as she kept ranting.

Riku remained silent, taking in the strange sight of this red and orange fairy flying around in front of them. It seemed she had a short temper. And that she jumped to conclusions – whether or not they were true. After all, he certainly wasn't aware there were fairies protecting the Keyblades.

"Um, excuse me," Meera tried to get Igins's attention. The fairy stopped flying around and stared at Meera, her eyes wide.

"Yes?" she asked.

"What, exactly, are you doing here?" Meera inquired. The fairy blinked a few times.

"Oh. Well. Miranda sent me to train you!" she replied happily. Meera furrowed her brow.

"Who's Miranda?" she asked. She certainly had never met anyone named Miranda – had she? It seemed slightly familiar, but still completely foreign.

"Whoops," Ignis responded, covering her own mouth with her tiny hand. "I wasn't supposed to say that," she mumbled.

"Look," Meera continued, "I don't really need to know. But what are you doing here _now_? I mean, what brought this on all of a sudden?"

"Well, after Lea came back, I was following him around. His hair is _such_ a great color. But then I saw you, and I remembered what I had been told, and I followed you instead! I mean, even though your hair isn't as bright, I like it too," Ignis explained, playing with a chunk of Meera's hair again.

"So this is what King Mickey meant," Riku mused. Meera looked back over at him before returning her gaze to the fairy that was now braiding her hair.

"What are you even supposed to be training me for?" she asked.

"Well, I know some information you and your friends might want to know about Zopyris."

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**A/N: I am so very sorry. It is short. It has lacking description. I'm just not feeling it. If I get inspired, maybe I'll rewrite it and try again. But for now, at least I am furthering the plot for you.**

**Again, I ask if you want me to stop writing until I feel inspired, or if you want me to continue to force out updates. Because, at the moment, the only thing keeping me writing this is because people are reading it and expecting updates every week, not for myself. So please let me know. I apologize again for the lackluster quality to this chapter.**

**C. E. Taylor**


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